Calling all music fans! BT Digital Music Awards 2010 nominees announced

Multiple nominations for Cheryl Cole, Plan B, Professor Green, Alexandra Burke and Dizzee Rascal

BT reveals the nominations for the annual BT Digital Music Awards. Fans can now vote for their favourite artists and music sites at www.btdma.com

This year’s nominees are a showcase of internationally acclaimed UK artists and with 21 categories on the cards, competition is fiercer than ever, with the likes of Cheryl Cole and

Alexandra Burke not only fighting it out for Best Female Artist, they are also up against each other for Best Song.

Plan B, Chipmunk and Taio Cruz have all been nominated in both the Best Song and Best Male Artist category, where Robbie Williams and Dizzee Rascal have also been put forward. New celeb couple Rochelle Wiseman (The Saturdays) and Marvin Humes (JLS) will battle against each other to win Best Group, whilst a host of new talent including Example and Professor Green will strive to be named Best Newcomer.

In the categories decided by the official judges, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz pick up multiple nominations, alongside Australian rock/drum n bass band Pendulum and BT DMA regulars, Muse. Meanwhile the BBC wins nominations for its Glastonbury 2010 coverage and its 2009 Ukulele Prom, as well as nods for its podcasts and shows by 6Music DJs Adam & Joe, and Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum. Among the newcomers heralded by the judges, Marina & The Diamonds will fight it out against The XX, Professor Green, deadmau5, Tinie Tempah and The Temper Trap.

This year sees the introduction of some new categories for 2010 including Best Place to Hear, Discover and Buy Music, Best Event and Best Music App to reflect the increased audience engagement and rapid developments in technology that the music industry has seen in recent years enabling music fans to access their favourite music when and where they want.

Also from today, anyone wishing to enter a music site in the People’s Choice Awards can go to www.btdma.com to download an interactive ‘voting button’ which enables website visitors to vote directly for the site by simply clicking on the button.

The awards will be held at Camden’s Roundhouse on Thursday 30 September, and fans will be able to catch all the action when the awards are broadcast on ITV2 on Saturday 2 October - if you’re not in don’t forget to set BT Vision to record.

BT is dedicated to enabling the digital media marketplace and committed to developing and producing cutting-edge technology. Lee Thompson, BT Vision’s Head of Music said: “At BT we are very proud to be celebrating and supporting the music industry with the BT Digital Music Awards. The breadth of incredible new home grown talent that’s emerged in the past 12 months, selling huge amounts of digital audio and video downloads, makes this year’s BT Digital Music Awards nominations list our best ever.”

BT Total Broadband is the UK’s most complete broadband package, enabled by the BT Home Hub. BT Total Broadband customers benefit from ultra-fast download speeds of up to 20Mbps* and TV on demand with BT Vision.

As part of its partnership with the music industry, BT is restricting participation in the awards to sites and services that have licensed music from official sources, ensuring that artists are properly rewarded for their work.

Full list of nominations in this year’s BT Digital Music Awards

The following categories have been shortlisted on the basis of download data from the Official Charts Company and are opened up to the public vote from today at www.btdma.com
Best Female Artist in association with SugarScape.com
Alexandra Burke
Cheryl Cole
Ellie Goulding
Florence & The Machine
Leona Lewis
Pixie Lott

Best Male Artist in association with The Sun
Chipmunk
Dizzee Rascal
Plan B
Robbie Williams
Taio Cruz
Tinie Tempah


Best Group in association with The Daily Star
JLS
Mumford & Sons
Muse
N-Dubz
Saturdays
Sugababes

Best Song in association with The London Entertainment Lowdown
Bad Boys – Alexandra Burke ft Flo Rida
Break Your Heart – Taio Cruz
Fight For This Love – Cheryl Cole
Pass Out – Tinie Tempah
She Said – Plan B
You’ve Got The Love – Florence & The Machine

Best International Artist or Group in association with TOTP magazine
Alicia Keys
Black Eyed Peas
Glee Cast
Jay-Z
Lady Gaga
Rihanna

Best Independent Artist or Group in association with Clash magazine
Dizzee Rascal
Example
Lost Prophets
Prodigy
The Temper Trap
Vampire Weekend

Best Newcomer in association with Last FM
Aggro Santos
Example
Joe McElderry
Mumford & Sons
Professor Green
Tinie Tempah

Best Video in association with BT Vision
Bad Boys – Alexandra Burke ft Flo Rida
Everybody in Love – JLS
Fight For This Love – Cheryl Cole
Good Times – Roll Deep
Pass Out – Tinie Tempah
Say It’s Over – N’Dubz

Best Place to Discover Music
BBC Introducing www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing
Drowned in Sound www.drownedinsound.com
Guardian Music www.guardian.co.uk/music
iTunes www.itunes.co.uk
NME.com www.nme.com
Resident Advisor www.residentadvisor.net


Best Place to Hear Music
BBC 6Music www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Last.fm www.last.fm
MySpace www.myspace.com/music
SoundCloud www.soundcloud.com
Spotify www.spotify.com
Youtube www.youtube.com


Best Place to Buy Music
Amazon www.amazon.co.uk
Boomkat www.boomkat.com
eMusic www.emusic.com
iTunes www.itunes.co.uk
Play.com www.play.com
Spotify www.spotify.com


The following categories will be decided by an expert-judging panel:
Best Event
D&BTV presents Pendulum ‘Immersion’ live album preview
Glastonbury 2010
Nokia presents Rihanna Live
Sonisphere
Sonisphere ‘The Big Four 2010’ cinecast
The Ukulele Prom


Best Music App
Gorillaz Plastic Beach app
Gorillaz ‘Escape to Plastic Beach’ games
Pendulum Witchcraft Experiment Facebook app
deadmau5 Touchmix II app
MySpace Music Fan Video app
Little Boots RjDj iPhone app


Breakthrough Artist of the Year
deadmau5
Marina & The Diamonds
Professor Green
The Temper Trap
The XX
Tinie Tempah


Artist of the Year
30 Seconds to Mars
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Gorillaz
Kylie
Muse
Pendulum


Best Innovation or Gadget
BandCentral
BuzzDeck
Pledge Music
Songkick
SoundCloud
SoundOut

Best Artist Promotion
Christina Aguilera ‘Bionic’ album collaborator map
Giggs Freestyle competition
Gorillaz ‘Escape to Plastic Beach’ games
Gorillaz ‘Escape to Plastic Beach’ iTunes album
M.I.A ‘Born Free’ video
Muse ‘United States of Eurasia’ USB Treasure Hunt


Best Radio Show or Podcast
Adam & Joe podcasts
Adam Buxton’s Big Mixtape show and podcast
Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 podcast
Jim Gellatly’s New Music podcast
Melodica show
SFG TV podcast


-ends-

* Speeds referred to are download speeds. Other factors affecting speed include distance from the exchange and internal home wiring. Please visit www.bt.com/broadband to see what speed we can provide on your line. If your line won’t support up to 20Mbps, we’ll offer the best speed available. Subject to availability and survey. BT line or similar non-cable line required.

Note to Editors
The panel of experts will come from a range of positions involved with digital music including broadcast and online digital media, record companies, music websites, digital music retailers and distributors, soft and hardware manufacturers and providers, network and telecoms providers and digital rights management companies.



The following companies are partners of the BT Digital Music Awards

About BPI
The BPI is the representative voice of the UK recorded music business. We are a trade organisation funded by our members - which include hundreds of independent music companies and the UK’s four major record labels. BPI’s members account for approximately 90% of all recorded music sold in the UK, and globally the UK’s recorded music market is the third biggest.

The BPI also organises the annual BRIT Awards show as well as the Classical BRIT Awards show. The organising company BRIT Awards Limited, is a fully owned subsidiary of the BPI. Substantial proceeds from both shows go to the BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the BPI that has donated almost £15m to charitable causes nationwide, since its foundation in 1989.


About AIM
AIM is a not-for-profit trade body established in 1999 to represent the UK independent music industry. Now in its 10th year, AIM acts for over 90% of the independent market, with over 800 members from small start-ups to the largest and most respected independents in the world. The independent sector regularly accounts for 30% of all UK artist album awards (silver, gold, platinum/multi-platinum). In 2009, independent albums made up half of the fifty “best albums of the year” according to the UK music press, and independents claimed seven of the top ten releases.

Artists signed to AIM member labels include: Adele, Amadou & Miriam, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Basement Jaxx, Big Pink, Bjork, Bloc Party, Bon Iver, Coldcut, Fleet Foxes, Franz Ferdinand, Friendly Fires, Future of the Left, Grizzly Bear, Jack Penate, Jarvis Cocker, Jay Sean, Jose Gonzalez, Justice, Katie Melua, Lost Prophets, M.I.A., Maximo Park, Mr. Scruff, Nitin Sawnhey, Radiohead, Reverend And The Makers, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Roots Manuva, Royksopp, Seasick Steve, Sufjan Stevens, Super Furry Animals, The Cribs, The Futureheads, The Horrors, The Prodigy, The Raconteurs, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Vampire Weekend, Wild Beasts, The XX and thousands of others.

www.musicindie.com

The Official Charts Company
The Official Charts are a central part of British culture. As the guardians of these charts, the Official Charts Company, manages the future development of the charts in the fast-moving entertainment industry, as well as controlling rights to the charts going back to 1960. The Official Charts Company is a joint venture between two key music industry associations – the BPI (The British Recorded Music Industry) and ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association). and is responsible for the commissioning, marketing, distribution and management of the UK’s official music and video charts. These charts are based on a survey across more than 4,000 retailers, accounting for 99% of all singles sold, 98% of all albums and 90% of all DVDs. The fast, accurate data used to compile these charts is also made available to music industry professionals to assess the progress of their artists, analyse the effectiveness of advertising campaigns across the country and assess the best way of promoting their products.

About PRS for Music
PRS for Music represents 70,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK. As a not-for-profit organisation it ensures creators are paid whenever their music is played, performed or reproduced; championing the importance of copyright to protect and support the UK music industry. The UK has a proud tradition of creating wonderful music that is enjoyed the world over and PRS for Music has been supporting the creators of that music since 1914.
PRS for Music provides business and community groups with easy access to over 10m songs through its music licences. In an industry worth £3.6bn PRS for Music is uniquely placed to be a voice for music and can provide data and comment for all aspects of the business: live, broadcast, sales, online, touring and music creation and up to date analysis, research and trends about the industry.
www.prsformusic.com

About PPL
PPL is the music licensing company which, on behalf of 45,000 performers and 5,750 record companies, licenses the use of recorded music in the UK. This enables TV and radio stations, online streaming services and hundreds of thousands of shops, pubs and others using music in their business to obtain a licence comprising millions of recordings.
As a music industry service, the company does not retain any profit for itself. The costs of collecting, processing and distributing the licence fees are taken from the gross revenues that the company collects which are distributed and paid to all PPL’s record company and performer members. These include featured artists as well as session musicians, ranging from orchestral players to percussionists and to singers. There is no joining fee or administration charge and the company actively seeks members.
For further information please visit ppluk.com

About Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)
MEF is the global trade body of the mobile media industry. It represents the leading companies throughout the entire mobile entertainment value chain, and works on behalf of its diverse membership to facilitate industry growth, shape regulation and deliver competitive advantage to its members.
With headquarters in London and regional chapters covering Asia, EMEA, LATAM and North America, MEF is a member community with global reach, vibrant local representation and strong leadership to drive market change. Established in 2000, MEF provides a consistent and powerful voice for the foremost mobile media businesses and entrepreneurs.
For further information and a full list of members, please visit: www.m-e-f.org

About Music Week
Music Week has been the UK music industry’s business magazine for over 50 years covering all sectors of the industry including major and independent record labels, publishers, retailers, the live sector, artist management, radio, music TV, music press, industry organization’s and recording studios, our unique audience profile across music week in print and mw.com gives you access to over 70,000 industry contacts – thus proving Music Week is the only business brand that connects diverse and dynamic communities.

Each issue Music Week’s unique editorial proposition, offers the fastest, the most accurate charts service in the world. As well as breaking the news first, Music Week provides comprehensive coverage of every aspect of the music business, and is ideally positioned to offer unrivalled opportunities for the launch or positioning of your artist or brand in the full gaze of the UK radio, TV and digital tastemakers.

About FRUKT
FRUKT Communications is a fully integrated music, entertainment and lifestyle communications agency, creating conversations through content and experiences drawn from the heart of a brand. From digital experiences to support ATL campaigns, right through to global festival activations, FRUKT works with global clients (such as Coca-Cola, Topman, Diesel, Gaymers Cider, Nokia and Miller UK) to get consumers to love their brand.

With a sharp insight team and an inspiring planning and creative team, FRUKT’s breadth of work is wide - running entire campaigns or fulfilling specific functions in the value chain (licensing, evaluation, digital marketing, competitive analysis, creative development etc). And sometimes plain leftfield things, like recently branding and naming a pop group