History of the New Mexico Music Awards

Beginning in 1987, a number of recording industry professionals including songwriters, recording engineers, working musicians and producers set out to achieve cooperation among recording studios and other industry professionals in order to create a climate of professionalism and artistic excellence within the New Mexico music community.

The result was the New Mexico Music Industry Coalition (NM MIC) annual MIC Awards banquet and show celebrating the best of recorded music within the state of New Mexico. This awards program, for original music productions recorded and mixed primarily within the state of New Mexico, recognizes excellence for recorded music from the previous calendar year.

The awards banquet has been held annually in the spring where awards are presented in a Grammy style ceremony that includes guest presenters and live performances.

With successive years, the program expanded to include entertainment law, copyright and songwriter’s workshops.

Over the past 20 years, the NMMA has evolved into the New Mexico Music Awards and continues to encourage and enhance the recorded music industry in New Mexico. In 2005, the NMMA established the Eric Larson Endowment at the University of New Mexico in memory of one of the awards program’s founders, Eric Larson. The endowment was established to assist junior or senior UNM students who have declared music or a related field (such as the recorded arts) as their major and who maintain a 3.0 GPA or better. The NMMA contributes annually to the endowment.

While not a non-profit organization, all monies raised by the NMMA, after awards program expenses, go to the continuation of the awards program as well as other endeavors related to music education within the New Mexico community. We are staffed entirely by volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, contact joseponce@aol.com.