NEWS: POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE ANNOUNCES INCREASE IN PRIZE FUNDING

AND NEW SECONDARY PRIZES FOR SHORTLIST; 2011 PRESENTING SPONSOR


ORONTO, ON – Tuesday, June 7, 2011. - Steve Jordan, Founder and Executive Director of the Polaris Music Prize today announced that the 2011 winner will be awarded $30,000, an increase of $10,000. “This increase in prize money coincides with Sirius Satellite Radio Canada returning as our presenting sponsor this year. In our discussion we agreed it was time to increase the winnings for the first time in our six year history,” said Jordan.

“Sirius Canada is proud to make the Polaris Music Prize even more valuable to Canadian artists,” said Andréanne Sasseville, Director, Canadian Content Development and Industry Relations, SIRIUS Canada Inc. “We are committed to supporting Canadian talent and the Polaris Prize offers a real opportunity for artists to earn recognition both in Canada and internationally.”


In addition to this increase, Polaris will present each of the nine non-winning Short List artists with $2,000 each, another first. This money has been provided by a donation from long time Polaris supporter Slaight Music. "From our perspective each of the 10 Polaris finalists are winners and we wanted to acknowledge their hard work and dedication. We hope the additional funds will be used to assist in furthering their musical careers," stated Gary Slaight, CEO of Slaight Music.

The Polaris Music Prize is awarded to the artist that creates the Canadian Album of the Year, as selected by an independent jury of Canadian music critics. It is judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales. Past winners have been Final Fantasy, Patrick Watson, Caribou, Fucked Up, and Karkwa.

The Long List of 40 titles will be announced June 16. The Short List of 10 nominees will be announced on July 6. Both lists will be revealed at press conferences to be held at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.

The winner will be revealed Monday, September 19 at the Polaris Music Prize gala. The event is broadcast live on Sirius channel 152 and CBC Radio 3 and will be held once again at CTV’s Concert Hall studios at Toronto’s Masonic Temple. The show will also be broadcast on MuchMusic and muchmusic.com.


About the Polaris Music Prize

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected music critics.

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