The New Mexico Music Awards is based on the belief that music recorded in New Mexico is on par or better than music recorded anywhere in the world. New Mexico possesses world class recording studios, is home to Grammy and Academy Award winning producers, engineers, songwriters and artists.

The awards program, established in 1987, is a direct result of the recording industry in New Mexico doing its best to establish itself as a player in the global music industry. Our awards show is here to recognize excellence in recording in New Mexico. Entering your product into the NMMAs means that you believe your product to be of the highest quality. Here are a few tips for entering the awards program.

  1. Make sure that your recordings are professionally recorded, mixed and mastered. While home recordings can be very well done, understand that you will be competing with professional recording studios, producers and engineers.
  2. Make sure that your form is filled out completely and that all of your contact information is on the form. Sometimes there are questions about a recording or an uploaded file may be corrupted and need to be replaced. Information like authors, producers or tech assistance may be needed for an award.
  3. Make sure that your audio files are properly tagged and are of high quality. Muddy, low resolution or live recordings may not be listenable.
  4. Make sure that videos are in a format that can be viewed. Links to videos are acceptable, but should be available for download in the event that a link goes down or unavailable.
  5. Make sure all of the metadata is there. Title, artist, composer and project information is vital when judging takes place so that your music doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Remember; We receive over 700 entries a year and searching for a title or artist name may harm your chances.
  6. Choose a category that best suits your music. If your song is country, don’t enter it into a blues category. If your song is rock, make sure you place it into the rock category that is closest to what you have recorded.
  7. Don’t compete against yourself. If you enter five songs into a single category, judges may tire of hearing the same style. Choose your best song that fits that category and run with it.
  8. Don’t shotgun. Entering the same song in multiple categories may just confuse the judges. Enter the appropriate category and stick with it.
  9. If you are entering a full length category, make sure that you include the artwork for the album. Commercially released material whether it is available as a hard copy or for digital streaming has merit with artwork.
  10. If you have questions, ask. Send any queries to contactnewmexicomusicawards@gmail.com and put Entry Question in the subject line.