The Wammie Awards Rules & Regulations

The Wammie Awards is a 35-year-old music awards platform aimed at recognizing the Washington DC Metropolitan Region’s best artists and musicians annually. Continue below to learn more about the upcoming awards season, our awards show platform and the music events we have planned for the celebration!

Learn about the Nominating and Voting Process

The 2022 Wammie Awards

Public Nominations for The 2022 Wammie Awards open on December 1, 2021, and will close on January 31, 2022. The public can return to WammiesDC.org to vote for their favorite nominees to become finalists in January 2022 only. Eligible nominations for The 2022 Wammie Awards must be for music released between January 1 and December 31 of 2021. The 2022 Wammie Awards will be held, once again, at the end of March 2022. Event logistics and sponsorship opportunities will be shared soon.

Award Categories

See our Full Awards List below:

Music Categories

General Interest Awards

• • Do Good Award:  An individual or organization (artist, musician, band, or institution) that has championed a social cause that benefits the DMV music community as a whole.
  • Educator Award: An individual (artist, musician, or educator) that has made the most noteworthy effort to change the trajectory of a group of students in a music educational capacity.
  • Music Media Award: A media entity, website, platform, or social media account that has excelled in enriching, educating and entertaining via content regional delivery communication methods. (Nominations for individuals without an identified media entity listed will be disqualified.)
  • Advocacy Award: An individual or group that has undertaken undeniable efforts to positively affect legislation and/or policy that positively impacts the regional music community.
  • Best Music Studio: A favorite music recording studio within our regional music community determined by a combined score of DMV resident votes during the public voting period with additional scores from our industry judges. Nominated Music Studios are not allowed to register as sponsors or vendors during the same awards show season they are nominated. Wammie Award Sponsors and/or vendors are not eligible for award nominations.
  • Best Music Venue Award: A favorite music venue, night club or restaurant from within our regional community determined by a combined score of DMV resident votes during the public voting period with additional scores from our industry judges. Nominated Music Venues are not allowed to register as sponsors or vendors during the same awards show season they are nominated. Wammie Awards Sponsors and/or vendors are not eligible for award nominations.

Determining Wammie Winners

Starting in December, the public (including artists/musicians themselves) submit nominations for each award category. In January, the public votes for their favorite nominees. The Top 7 nominees in each category become Finalists. Over 65 regional music industry judges score the finalists in each award category. The finalist with the highest score wins the award category. If there are 0 nominees in a category, we will not issue an award.

Each awards season recognizes the music and community work from the previous calendar year. For Example: The 2022 Wammie Awards recognizes the music and work done in 2021.

Eligibility

Artist-Nominee Location

To be eligible for a Wammie Award, the artist(s)/musician(s) must be based within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Please see the map here that illustrates our eligibility region. If a nominee is based beyond the highlighted region, they are ineligible to be nominated.

Music Award Requirements

  For the best song, best album, and best artist categories, music must be:

• • Formally and Professionally Recorded 
  • Released During The Proper Awards Year: January 1st – December 31st
  • Widely Distributed: While we want artists’ music to be enjoyed locally, in order to raise the profile of DC-area music, we want to encourage our creative community to strive for publishing music that can be consumed globally. Nominations must be published on at least (2) two of the following public music streaming platforms:  iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud and BandCamp. (YouTube Releases are not currently considered for The Wammie Awards.)

Music Term Definitions

• Song: A song is a musical recording, which an artist formally and professionally performed, produced, and released, for public consumption.
• Album: An album is a compilation of at least five (5) songs that were professionally performed, produced and released, for public consumption.
• Artist/Group: An artist/group is an individual or group of individuals who released a song or album, in the eligible award year.
  

Nomination Eligibility

Only Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland residents may nominate artists and vote for finalists within The Wammie Awards platform. More than one nomination can be submitted for our award categories, but you cannot nominate the same artist, for the same award, multiple times (Ex:  Joe Public can submit Band J, Band K, and Band L for the Best Rock Album Category. However, Joe Public cannot submit Band J three times for the Best Rock Album Category. Once Band J is nominated once, there is no need to nominate them again.)

The sharing of this information can include verbiage that encourages their fan base to vote for the nominee during our Voting Period. Nominees MAY NOT offer payment, compensation, gifts, or rewards in exchange for Wammie Awards votes. If it has been proven that there has been payment, compensation, gifting or rewards offered, promised or delivered in exchange for Wammie Awards votes, the nominee and all subsequent nominations will be disqualified and removed from the Wammie Awards platform.

Determining Finalists

• • If there is a tie of public votes for 7th Place (remember the Top 7 Finalists go to judges), then all artists involved in the tie for 7th place will continue on to become Finalists.
  • Only (1) song or album per artist can advance to the finalist round. If there’s more than (1) song or album by an artist in the same award category, the song with the most votes will be chosen to represent that artist in the Final Judging round.
  • NEW – Award categories with only (1) nominee at the end of the nomination period will not be awarded during that particular awards show season.
  • NEW – Finalists cannot have the same song or album represented in different genres. Artists must choose their sole genre for each song or album nomination. If not determined by the artist, The Wammie Awards will use their iTunes or Spotify genre designation for identification purposes.

Our Regional Industry Judges

Each year, between 50 – 75 music industry and subject matter experts, which include local musicians, producers, educators, radio hosts, journalists, DJ’s, and other creative peers who understand, and influence, our region’s music industry participate as our judges. Our Industry Judges donate hours of their time in support of The MusicianShip’s core mission: ‘Changing Lives with Music’. Regional Industry Judges are required to possess a minimum of (5) years of music experience within our Metropolitan Region and must be cleared of any conflicts of interest. 

Awards Show History

From 1982 to 2016, The Wammie Awards were produced and maintained by the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA). WAMA made the difficult decision to dissolve, amidst challenges faced by the organization and leadership. Instead of discontinuing the Wammie Awards, WAMA decided that The Wammies needed a new, mission-aligned home that could preserve this important DC-Area treasure. On March 9, 2018, the WAMA Board adopted a resolution, with the dual intent of dissolving and transferring all remaining assets to The MusicianShip – including the right to produce The Wammie Awards. Many WAMA Board members remain involved today and are on The MusicianShip’s Steering Committee for The Wammie Awards & Wammie Weekend.

The MusicianShip is now in its 5th year of administering and producing The Wammie Awards. Each year, we engage in continued research and discovery of our region’s music industry in order to accurately reflect the genres represented in DC, MD & VA. We have since consolidated our awards list to a manageable amount, focusing on the music genres we found to be hyper-active. We will consider adding more award categories and music genres in the future, and welcome the community’s feedback and music experiences. Do you have knowledgeable, regional music industry experience or information to share? Email us today at hello@wammiesDC.org.

The MusicianShip is a DC-based 501(c)(3) that facilitates music lessons, experiences, and opportunities for youth who need us most. In 2020, we will serve over 1,600 youth through after-school programs, summer programs, and master class programs in DC, South Africa, and France. In addition to producing the Wammie Awards, we are also the new home of the DC Funk Parade. Please visit TheMusicianShip.org to learn more!

Content updated October 14, 2021