Polaris Blog (463)

Behind the Scenes: Polaris discussion list

Most familiar with the Polaris Music Prize will know that a jury of over 200 music writers, broadcasters, and bloggers is indispensible to the process that determines the award.

But what many may not know is that before the jurors make their five-album selections for the Long List and subsequent Short List, they spend much of the year discussing their picks and pans on an e-mail listserv that’s open only to jury members.

For a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the sort of exchange that goes on online between Polaris jurors, we turned to two jurors with very different opinions on the Short List: Veteran juror <a href="https://radiofreecanuckistan.blogspot.com/">Michael Barclay</a>, co-author of Canrock history <a href="https://www.ecwpress.com/havenot"><i>Have Not Been the Same</i></a>, came out strongly in favour of the Short List when it was first announced, while <a href="https://nxew.ca/">NxEW.ca</a> blogger Justin Beach (who's been on the jury for the past two years) offered up more of a shrug…

Summer showcase: Osheaga Music & Arts Festival

As the final weeks of summer fall upon us, Polaris-winning and nominated artists continue to traverse the country hitting the summer-festival circuit. One of the newer additions to the Canadian festival community is Montreal’s Osheaga Festival, which has firmly made its mark since bowing onto the scene in 2006, thanks to its consistently high-profile lineups that combine big-name headliners with local talent and rising independent acts.

Programmer Evelyne Côté took some time out in the hours before this year’s edition of Osheaga kicked off to chat about the festival’s Polaris connections.

Summer showcase: Hillside Festival

Summer is upon us, and that means one thing: music-festival time! It’s a chance to catch many Polaris nominees (and winners) – past and present – at the vast array of festivals taking place across the country during the sunny season. One festival that’s developed quite a reputation is Guelph, Ontario’s <a href="https://hillsidefestival.ca/">Hillside Festival</a>, which has showcased Canadian acts like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and Metric (Polaris nominees all) long before they became household names.

Hillside artistic director Samir Baijal is the one responsible for the festival’s incredibly diverse (and incredibly Polaris-friendly) programming – we decided to ask him about how he manages to get some of the best artists across the country (and the globe) to play a smalltown Ontario festival year in and year out.

Short List 2011: By the numbers!

And the word is out! The list of ten albums vying for the sixth annual Polaris Prize was announced today in Toronto by gala hosts Grant Lawrence (CBC Radio 3) and Damian Abraham (lead bellower of 2009 Polaris winners Fucked Up). While we'll leave the inevitable gloating, hand-wringing, and potential wagering to all the jurors, bloggers, and music fans out there, here are some fun facts about this year's shortlist to mull over in the lead-up to the big show on September 19…

Our Long List sponsor may have money for you.

RACS is generously sponsoring the Long List this year. Polaris likes giving great artists money, and so does RACS. RACS stands for Recording Artists’ Collecting Society. They are a division of ACTRA. You know, the actor's union? But they are separate things.

Polaris 2011! Now with more money!

For the first time in our six year history, we’re increasing the prize money. We will now be presenting the winner with a cheque for $30,000, an increase of $10,000. This increase is due in no small part to our good friends and presenting sponsor Sirius Satellite Radio Canada. Welcome back Sirius!

Dear labels. Releasing in May does not necessarily increase your chances of a nomination.

Hello music releasing friends of the record label persuasion.

Today is the deadline for albums to be considered for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize. The qualifying period is June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011.

It has come to light that some labels, artists and managers think that releasing your record at the end of this qualifying period helps your chances at a nomination, given the reasonable hypothesis that a May release puts a record to the top of mind of our jurists.

We just want you to know that the facts do not necessarily bear this out.

Jury (and Jury Secrets!) Revealed

The Polaris Music Prize is a juried award. What does that mean, you ask? It means the winner, as well as the short listed and long listed records, are selected by an independent group of jury members. Who are these people? How are they selected? What do they do? Read on!

Searchlight! Don't vote for us!

We are, of course, honoured to have been nominated for this award and we must thank whoever put us forward for consideration. But here's the thing. Or things.

1) We do think our site's pretty awesome. But so many do it so much better with more regularity. We suggest you peep BangBang, ChartAttack, ChippedHip, Chromewaves, CokeMachineGlow, ExploreMusic, FromBlownSpeakers, HeroHill, i(Heart)Music, MidnightPoutine, NXeW, QuickBeforeItMelts, RadioFreeCanuckistan, SaidTheGrammophone, Soundproof, TinyMixTapes, and Zoilus. And those are just the ones that are also on our jury. You could also visit the sites of any of our nominees from the past, also linked in this here site, as are our those of our jury members. Make sure you have an hour or two of discovery time to kill.

It's the End of the Year as we Know it

Year-end music lists are staple of the muzo journo diet in December. Most of our jury members have posted their versions by now (see the handy links down on the right, but beware that exploring all their recommendations might chew up what's left of your holiday time). And, most excitingly, Polaris Short Listers have also shown up on Best of the Year lists well beyond our borders. With puffed up chests, here are some of our faves: