It’s that special time of year when we have the opportunity to pay tribute to the very best for our special Nomination Issue. Not only do we single out artists and bands, we also shine the spotlight on radio stations, music and program directors, record labels and industry professionals. Many of the reporters for NMW had a hand in our nomination process but it was also the music fans from our on-line voting booth that helped to lock in the final nominations. There was an overwhelming amount of votes cast this year, signaling that the world is paying close attention to what we are doing here at New Music Weekly.

Now that the nominees have been presented, many of you out there can lend a hand in helping to choose the winners for our annual New Music Awards. On our website you will find the complete list of nominees and we are giving the music fans and industry professionals the change to vote for their favorites that will enable nominees to become winners. With our new on-line magazine presence added to the mix, this makes the coverage all that more powerful and gives an opportunity for the world to participate.

In this issue you will also find a number of artists and bands that took the time to lobby their friends and fans for the vote. Please take the time to look at all of those who participated in this special issue and give them a little extra attention as well. The stations and programmers that make up the New Music Weekly panel also deserve your love and support. They are the foundation for what we do and we know that many of you count on them for your ongoing support. Please take some time to give them a nod as without them we would not be able to do what we do here.

As you can see by the artist nominees, there are many major artists that had a huge impact over the past year. There are also a vast number of independent artists on smaller labels that made the list as well. This group also deserves some praise for taking the step to get their music out to the world without the help and assistance of a major record label. From Top40, Country to Hot AC, artists and bands in the independent arena stepped to the plate and ran some very good campaigns. As we weren’t able to get all of them on the list this year, there are a good many of them represented and they also deserve some extra love and very special attention.

We hope to have to final outcome for this year’s awards very soon. We’ll keep the online voting open as long as we can but we suggest you get to that early as it may close sooner than later. Fans and friends of artists should feel free to send the link for the voting out to others and that can help with the support needed to choose the final list of our winners. That list will be announced via our next issue on line and notices will be sent to the entire music industry. Regardless of the final outcome all nominees are winners in our book.

New Music Weekly now turns our sights on this year’s CRS (Country Radio Seminar). We will be on sight at this grand event in full force. We suggest you get in touch with us as soon as possible to secure interviews in the media room. The information we attain during this event helps to give us with coverage that we can use the entire year.  NMW is now in pre-production for our annual CRS Edition that will also be distributed throughout the Country Radio Seminar. Also remember that although the focus of the event is on Country music, many of the music programmers and station managers also run a good number of Top40 and HotAC stations and many will be on sight. We hope to see all of you there.