All About Awards

,There are a number of awards one could hope to receive for their music. Below are links to a number of them (with links to their pages on kinDIY when applicable). In addition to this list, at the end of the page are links to every page on kinDIY that have the "awards" tag.

Before you go submitting for everything and paying lots of fees, though, you might want to consider a number of factors. Among them:

  • How much does it cost to submit your music? (Does it seem like the entity is trying to make money more than it's trying to help artists?)
  • Does the award have a track record of winners finding success (however you define that)?
  • If you win, do you have to buy stickers or something else to use the award to your advantage? (Does it seem like the entity is more of a sticker sales place than centered on music?)
  • If you can, figure out what proportion of music considered gets an award. Less selective might make it more likely that you'll get an award, but it also makes it so the award probably means less.

Fids and Kamily Awards

[Fids and Kamily Awards website]

Voters: Invited list of reviewers, bloggers, radio producers, and the like.

The awards are announced (on Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child) early in the winter holiday season. There's no charge for any part of the awards.

FAQ: Some of you may have questions about the Fids and Kamily Awards. This is our brief attempt at answering some of the most common questions. If you've got more questions, please leave them in the comments.

What is Fids and Kamily?
It's a yearly poll that compiles the lists of the year's favorite kids and family music from kids music writers, radio programmers, and others in the industry into a consensus list of the year's best music for kids and families.

How do you submit a CD for consideration?
Get your CD into the hands of the F&K judges. Judges come and go every year, but a list of this year's judges is there to the left. The F&K coordinators are not responsible for distributing CDs to judges.

Is there an entry fee for submitting a CD?
Nope!

How does the poll work?
Individual judges are required to allocate 100 points to their 10 favorite kids and family CDs of the year. Exactly 100 points, exactly 10 CDs — no more, no less. There are minimum point levels (5) and maximum point levels (25) assigned to each album. The top albums are ranked in order of their cumulative point totals. We have spreadsheets, and we're not afraid to use them.

What is the eligibility period?
It's for albums generally available between November 1 and Ocober 31.

Do winners get anything?
Besides the acclimation of a group of people who spend thousands of hours a year listening to hundreds of kids' CDs, no. Not yet, anyway.

Who came up with the name?
Yeah, you can blame Stefan Shepherd for that one. He came up with the idea for the poll, inspired by the Village Voice's annual "Pazz and Jop" Poll, which surveyed writers on their favorite pop and jazz records. He thought "Fids and Kamily" would be an appropriate name for a kids and family music survey. Unwisely, his two poll co-founders, Bill Childs and Amy Davis, didn't object at the time.

Grammy

Voters: Members of the academy only, artists & technical professionals

[Grammy Awards website]

The recording industry's most prestigious award, the GRAMMY, is presented annually by The Recording Academy. A GRAMMY is awarded by The Recording Academy's voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences. It is truly a peer honor, awarded by and to artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievement, not sales or chart positions (GRAMMY Awards Voting Process). The annual GRAMMY Awards presentation brings together thousands of creative and technical professionals in the recording industry from all over the world.


Kindie Music Awards

Voters: Members of the KMA only, artists & technical professionals

[Kindie Music Association website] - co-founded by Tor Hyams

About KMA
Musicians across all genres and generations have practiced and celebrated their craft with family members of all ages for many years. Only recently have these musicians begun recording family-focused music to distribute throughout the world. Thus, independent musicians focused on creating music for the entire family have found a niche in their very own and rapidly growing genre that is commonly referred to as kindie music.

Those that create, promote and/or simply love kindie music find themselves in the midst of a strong community of artists with a common goal in this ever-changing music industry. The Kindie Music Association seeks to foster the growth of this genre, advocate for this community as a whole and for individual members, as well as recognize various achievements in the community.

By promoting the community to an international audience, the KMA will foster better business, greater commerce and vertical growth for its creators and patrons.


Parent's Choice Awards

Voters: Invited panelists

Parent's Choice Awards website

Designed to help parents and caregivers of all achievements and backgrounds make informed decisions about which new products are right for their children, the Parents' Choice Awards is the nation's oldest nonprofit program created to recognize quality children's media. The Parents' Choice Awards program honors the best material for children: books, toys, music and storytelling, magazines, software, videogames, television and websites. Parents' Choice Foundation's panels of educators, scientists, performing artists, librarians, parents and, yes, kids themselves, identify the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels.


Below is a list of all pages on kinDIY that are tagged with the "awards" tag.

Fids and Kamily Awards

by Stefan ShepherdStefan Shepherd 09 May 2011 20:38

The Fids and Kamily Awards were co-founded in 2006 by Stefan Shepherd, Bill Childs, and Amy Davis. (Gwyneth Butera now helps administer the poll along with Stefan and Bill.) It was modeled after the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Awards, in which critics receive a limited number of points to allocate among their ten favorite albums of the year. There is no entry fee to artists; participating critics simply choose their favorites based upon the albums they received. The award year is generally November 1 of the prior year through October 31 of the current year, with winners being announced on the Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child radio show. Prior year winners, along with links to complete results are below:

Tor Hyams

by tor hyamstor hyams 09 May 2011 03:32

Grammy® nominated producer Tor Hyams has over 20 years of experience in the music and film industries, from writing and performing his own material to producing world-class recording artists, live music festivals for children, short films and digital programming, and composing dozens of scores for both film and television.

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