Welcome to the New Music Awards nominees.  This provides an opportunity for us to signal out the very best artists and bands over the past voting season from both the major an independent label arena. This also provides us all an opportunity to pay tribute to radio stations, music and program directors including industry professionals who have had a hand in making a huge impact in the music industry over this past year. It’s really been quite the team effort as labels and stations worked closely together to bring us the very best that the music industry has had to offer. The results have been quite impressive.

New Music Weekly has one again provided an open ballot that allowed our subscribers and music fans a chance to participate in the nomination process. Much to our surprise we had an overwhelming response that provided a wide range of ideas for those who had an impact at radio over the past year. It was quite a tribute for many of us to see how many people became engaged in our nomination process. Something we are extremely happy about & it allows us to now celebrate the very best out there as we move forward.

If you listen to top 40 radio over this past year, you can’t help but notice how many female recording artist are now being programmed at a higher rate than male and bands or groups. On that same note over at Country radio most of the artists are male with female artists getting much less play on any given week. Hot AC radio at least gives a little better to both as they have a much open mix of music. Regardless, we really need more female artists at the Country format and more male vocalists over at Top40. Hopefully we’ll see some changes this coming year.

This was also another banner year of crossover Hit singles. Record labels now realize that one format may not be enough for breaking singles at radio. New Music Award nominee Shaboozey showed up in a very big way getting much love from both the Country and pop music formats. Dasha also proved to be a big winner with “Austin” (Warner/WMN) breaking big time from pop to Country. Morgan Wallen also made big moves from Country to Top40 & Hot AC & remains strong on multiple formats at radio. There will be more from him to come in 2025.

No female artist since Taylor Swift has made a bigger entrance than NMA nominee Chappell Roan. This young gay recording artist from the Midwest broke out all over Top40 radio with a numbers of massive hits including her nominated “Good Luck, Babe!” (Island/UMG). She’s now racing to the very top of the charts once again as her “Pink Pony Club” which she performed quite powerfully on this year’s Grammy Awards takes flight. NMA nominated Sabrina Carpenter also ruled the pop charts with a number of hits including her NMA nominated “Espresso” (Island/UMG).

Independent artists abound again with Eileen Carey pulling in a good amount of nominations thanks to her powerful “On The Rise” (RolleyCstr Music) that just produced a music video. DPB had another powerful year from Top40 to AC40 & now adds New Music Award nominee to his vast list of credits. He now has “Peer Pressure” (MTS) out for a spin and the results have been quite stunning. Newcomer John Preston made a powerful debut with “Rise” (Lobel Music Group) that puts this firefighter and military man on the charts where he belongs. Many of the top independent artists and nominees are quite visible for you to view on our current music charts.

It is now time to move all of these nominees into the winners circle. As with our nomination process, we now have an open ballot for our subscribers and music fans alike. Not only can you move artists and bands into the winners circle you can also pay homage to radio stations, music and program directors along with industry professionals. Just hit up our sight for your voice to be heard and that will make a huge difference towards a new perfect outcome. New Music Weekly will continue to offer the very best tools of the trade. From our published music magazine to our STS tracking system and the like, we pretty much have you covered as we continue to level the playing field. We congratulate all of our New Music Award nominees and we look forward to announcing our final list of winners in this very issue next time.