ARIA Music Awards

The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). The event has been held annually since 1987 and encompasses the general genre-specific and popular awards (these are what is usually being referred to as "the ARIA awards") as well as Fine Arts Awards and Artisan Awards (held separately from 2004), Achievement Awards and ARIA Hall of Fame – the latter were held separately from 2005 to 2010 but returned to the general ceremony in 2011. For 2010, ARIA introduced public voted awards for the first time.

For the British radio awards, see Audio and Radio Industry Awards.

ARIA Music Awards

Excellence and innovation in all genres of Australian music.

Australia

Australian Recording Industry Association

1987 (1987)

Current

ariaawards.com.au

Network Ten (1992–2000, 2002–08, 2010, 2014–16)
Nine Network (2001, 2009, 2017–present)
GO! (2011–13)
YouTube (2021–present)
Stan (2023–)^[1]

Winning, or even being nominated for, an ARIA award results in a lot of media attention and publicity on an artist, and usually increases recording sales several-fold, as well as chart significance – in 2005, for example, after Ben Lee won three awards, his album Awake Is the New Sleep jumped from No. 31 to No. 5 in the ARIA Charts, its highest position. In October 1995 singer-songwriter Tina Arena became the first woman to win Album of the Year for Don't Ask (1994) and Song of the Year for "Chains". Before the ceremony the album had achieved 3× platinum (for shipment of 210,000 copies) and by year's end it was 8× platinum (560,000 copies) and had topped the end of year albums chart.^[2]

/Single of the Year: Recording must appear in the ARIA Top 100 Albums or Singles chart respectively during the specified period.

Album

(Album/Single): Artist must not have previously reached the final five nominations in any ARIA awards category for any release, or have been in a group that has done so, or have a previous release in the Top 50 release charts.

Breakthrough Artist

: "Recording must be directed toward Contemporary Rock, Modern Rock and Active Rock formats."

Best Rock Album

: "Recording must be directed toward Adult Contemporary formats."

Best Adult Contemporary Album

: "Recording must be directed toward CHR/Top 40 formats."

Best Pop Release

: Recording must be released and funded by an ARIA member that is not a member of a multinational corporation.

Best Independent Release

: Compilations may enter this category. Content must be at least 60% original. The release must be eligible to appear on the ARIA Music DVD chart (this means most "bonus disc" releases are unlikely to be eligible).

Best Music DVD

: Compilations are acceptable. Album, single and DVD releases are all eligible. Content must be 100% original.

Best Comedy Release

: Compilations are acceptable (but content must be 100% original, having been recorded specifically for that album). Form and content must be aimed at a pre-teen audience.

Best Children's Album

: Compilations are acceptable. "Artists working primarily within the dance genre, e.g.: House, Techno, Trance, Hardcore, Garage, Breakbeat, Drum & Bass, Disco and Electronica are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team(s) and the original recording artist(s) must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart."

Best Dance Release

: "Artists working primarily within the urban genre, e.g.: R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, reggae, and dancehall, are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team(s) and the original recording artist(s) must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart. The ARIA member must also nominate whether the production team or the original recording artist would be the recipient of the award." This category was discontinued in 2018 and replaced by Best Hip Hop Release and Best Soul/R&B Release from 2019.

Best Urban Release

Sales awards: A company may enter up to five recordings in a category. For these categories, the recording does not have to be first released during the specified period, so these categories are two of the few where recordings can be nominated more than once. These categories were discontinued in 2010.

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To be eligible, a release must be commercially available within the specified period for a given year. Material must be previously unrecorded, thus ruling out most live albums. A recording can be nominated within multiple categories, but only one genre category (for example, an album could not be simultaneously nominated for Best Pop Release and Best Dance Release). Re-released recordings are not eligible and compilations are not eligible.

Artists must either be Australian citizens, or have applied for or attained permanent resident status and have resided in Australia for at least six months within the specified period. For bands, at least half the members of the group must meet this requirement. If a recording refers to both an individual and a band (for example, Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males), it must be nominated only the basis of the individual or the band, not mixed or both.

Some categories have further requirements as specified below:

Note: Originally awarded at the same ceremony as the ARIA Awards, the ARIA Fine Arts and Artisan Awards have been awarded at a separate ceremony from 2004. In 2020 both Fine Arts and Artisan Awards returned to the general ceremony.

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The trophy[edit]

The ARIA award trophy, used since 1990, is a tall triangular pyramid made of solid stainless steel.^[38] The 1987–1989 trophies were designed by Philip Mortlock, while the 1990 design was by Mark Denning.^[38] The Channel V award which is V-shaped, and silver, or in the case of the award of 2008, red. As from 2005, The Hall of Fame trophy, from the Denning design, was golden coloured metal with ARIA printed in black near the base on two sides, on the third side is the award title (ARIA ICONS: HALL OF FAME), awardee name and date printed on a plaque.^[39]

ARIA Music Awards