Terms & Conditions

  1. General
    1. Organisation: MusicNT Incorporated organises and produces the NT Music Awards, an annual competition, promoting the talents of songwriters, venues and festivals resident in the Northern Territory, inviting writers to submit recordings of original musical compositions. NT Music Awards aims to reveal, promote and support Northern Territory songwriters across many genres and facilitate career opportunities as well as recognising venues, festivals and production crew that support the NT music sector.
    2. Independence: Judging of submissions, and selection of category nominees and winners, is undertaken by a judging panel independent of MusicNT. No MusicNT staff or sponsors are involved in this process.
    3. Acceptance: Participation in the NT Music Awards implies complete acceptance of the present Terms and Conditions, the renunciation of any recourse concerning the conditions of organisation and the running of the event, its results and the attribution of prizes as well as the decision of the jury, which will be final and without appeal.
    4. Entry Submissions
      • The NT Music Awards is exclusively open to residents of the Northern Territory. MusicNT staff members, MusicNT board members and NT Music Awards sponsors and their immediate families are ineligible to apply.
      •  To enter you must be a current Northern Territory resident or, if you have recently relocated, you must have been a resident of the NT at the time of your work’s creation
      • Song and Photographic entries must be the original work of the entrant and not infringe on any copyrights. The song may be used for MusicNT’s promotional purposes, and the songwriter offers MusicNT a non-exclusive licence to use the song for the promotion of the NT Music Awards, and that the songwriter/s is authorised to grant said licence;
      •  Entries which compromise MusicNT’s obligations to its principal sponsors will not be considered;
      • All copyrights remain the property of the songwriters.
      • No contestant may infringe upon existing copyrights and in submitting their song. The contestant agrees that MusicNT Inc. is not held responsible for any such infringement which may occur, and will indemnify MusicNT Inc. against any legal action which may arise as a result of such breaches of copyright;
      •  Songs that have been a finalist or winner in a previous NT Music Awards will not be accepted.
      •  Instrumental music may be entered into all categories but must be clearly indicated by writing “Instrumental” in the lyrics section on the online form;
      •  Entry fees are non-refundable;
      •  All entrants agree to have their work/s made available to third parties in order to carry out the project and satisfy program sponsors.
    5. Judging: The judging panels are made up of music industry professionals from across Australia. All NT Music Award entries are judged anonymously by the judging panel. All songs submitted will be given a unique identification number and any personal identifiers (ie. band or songwriter name) removed from materials and media prior to the songs being offered to judging panels. No MusicNT staff or sponsors will be engaged in the judging process.
      • Four nominees and a winner from this group will be chosen in each category;
      • The overall NT Song of The Year is selected from the finalists of each category by an independent judging panel; and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcomes of judging.
      • ALL finalists will be notified via email on Friday June 7, 2024. All finalists will be asked to provide a photo and bio for promotional use and will be considered for media opportunities relating to the event. Finalists will be invited to the awards night on Thursday, 27 June, 2024. Additional tickets will be made available to the public. Check the website for updates and details.
    6. Award Categories include:
      • Song of The Year
      • Tourism NT - Territory Song
      • Country
      • Pop
      • Youth (Under 25 years old)
      • Rock
      • Metal/Hardcore
      • Blues  & Roots
      • Urban/Hip Hop
      • Electronic/Dance
      • Folk 
      • All Good Project Venue of The Year
      • Metro Festival of The Year
      • Regional  Festival of The Year
      • Hot Shots Best Photograph - Portrait
      • Hot Shots Best Photograph -  Live Shot
      • Hots Shots - People's Choice 
  2. How To Enter
    • Entries are open from Thursday April 11th, 2024 and close at midnight (ACST) Monday 13th May, 2024.
    • Entries via the online form available at musicawards.music.com.au. 
    • Each song must be submitted with its lyrics via the online form;  if the track is instrumental, please enter “INSTRUMENTAL” in the Lyrics section of the form.
    • Songs sung in languages other than English - please provide an English translation, if possible.
    • Ensure all songwriters of each song entered are clearly listed on the official entry form.
    • The Northern Territory Music Awards is a song writing and photography competition. Therefore, the songwriters and photographers will be credited as the finalists/winners. In the case of all members of a band being the songwriters, the band name will be credited as the finalists/winners. 
    • Song(s) must be in MP3 format and less than 6MB.
    • A  song may be entered into multiple categories but it will incur an entry fee for each category. 
    • Payment must be made at the time of entering and is non-refundable.
    • If you are paying in person, please pay at the MusicNT office in Alice Springs or in Darwin. MusicNT holds no responsibility for entries that are late, lost, misdirected postage, Nor is it responsible in any way for entries that are stolen or misappropriated
    • Recordings and lyrics will not be returned
  3. Cost of Entry
    • $11 (Up to 3 x Songs) with Additional Songs $11 each (prices include GST)
  4. All category winners agree to have their winning entry included on various websites. The Northern Territory Music Awards creates huge promotional opportunities for finalists and winners. MusicNT will notify you of these opportunities as they arise.  All category winners agree to grant MusicNT the non-exclusive right, free of charge, to make entered songs available for streaming, together with winner’s name and approved images, by members of the public on a non-commercial basis for the purpose of promoting MusicNT and the Northern Territory Music Awards event. Winners will be announced at the presentation ceremony at the 2023 Northern Territory Music Awards: Thursday 27 June, 2024.
  5. Hot Shots Best Photograph - Registration Guidelines with Terms & Conditions
    • The subject or location must be from the Northern Territory.

      Eligible: Picture of an NT act playing a show at Madison Square Garden, NY. USA.Eligible: Picture of an NT act playing a show at Wide Open Spaces Festival, NT

      Ineligible: Picture of a non-NT act playing a show  outside of the NT

    • Digital Entries of .jpg or .png only (files size to 20Mb)
    • Each image must be submitted in two formats
    • SMALL for judging (1Mb or less)
    • LARGE for printing (or 300 dpi at 100% size to be specified)
    • Small images are to be named”Photographer’s Lastname_Initial_image title_SMALL.jpg”. For example Citizen_J_Crowd Shot_SMALL.jpg
    • Large images are to be named”Photographer’s Lastname_Initial_image title_LARGE.jpg”. For example Citizen_J_Crowd Shot_LARGE.jpg
    • Works can be from any year and not submitted to a previous year's Hot Shots competitions.
    • Up to 6 images per entrant may be submitted
    • Photographs can be entered as Best Photograph - Live Shot (Performing Live at a gig or event) or Best Photograph - Portrait (Band or artist portrait shot)
      Terms and Conditions for Hot Shots

      • Hot Shots is open to all residents of the Northern Territory
      • Entries must be received prior to the closing date of: Monday 13th May, 2024. Late Entries will not be accepted.
      • Entries will not be returned
      • The images  submitted will be used for the selection of exhibition works
      • All entrants who submit to “Northern Territory Music Awards - Hot Shots Photography Competition”, agree to have their photographic works publicly exhibited at all MusicNT exhibition events, used for promotional purposes and available to be viewed online through MusicNT digital channels. The photographer will be acknowledged on all works.  

Event Promotion

The package of promotional activities that will be undertaken on behalf of the winning artists will include, but not be limited to:

  • Presentation of an Award trophy at the annual Northern Territory Music Awards
  • Profiling on the Northern Territory Music Awards and MusicNT websites
  1. Entrant Agreement
  • By nominating for the Northern Territory Music Awards, the entrant agrees to and accepts the terms and conditions as outlined in this document.

All further enquiries contact MusicNT:
Phone: (08) 8981 1995 or email: info@musicnt.com.au