Once upon a time Ireland had a measly little music awards ceremony every year called the IRMA’s. Sometime during the noughties Meteor took over and turned it around and into a shoe (not an actual shoe, more like a show) that takes place in the 02 in Dublin every year.
This year unsigned bands had the opportunity to nominate themselves for ‘Most promising New Artist 2010’. They can get all their mates to vote for them and the top few go through to a shortlist for the actual award.
Here’s my beef.. Meteor you have to give some guidelines next year as to who can enter, everyone in a band seems to have nominated themselves. Now, I’m not one to knock independent Irish music, heck it’s paid my wages (which I am thankful for) and I know a hell of a lot of bands but i do think that Meteor should come up with some sort of minimum criteria to enter.
What has happened is everyone, no matter what level the act is at can be voted through to the shortlist. Everyone that votes can vote once a day. This leads to Facebook, Twitter, Email, text messages constantly, as people as for your vote. The more people in bands you know, the greater the spam. I can this spam because if 20 bands have asked me to vote for them, I can only vote once but that’s not the end of it. Everyday from 20 bands.. Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS.. you work out the figures.
I don’t blame the bands for trying, it is a really hard industry to crack but Meteor make January 2011 a little less spammy, work on the criteria guidelines chaps.
You can vote at http://meteormusicawards.meteor.ie/
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