Get International Recognition
We reward, mentor and support you to enhance your music career.
Are you an aspiring musician looking for international recognition? Look no further than the InterContinental Music Awards! We provide a platform for musicians from all over the world to showcase their talent and gain valuable industry insights.
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For more than a decade, ICMA has recognized music talents from every continent and regions worldwide. Each year, we reward winners with exquisite prizes, from producing high-quality music taking them to the big stages in front of thousands of audiences, to educating and mentoring them on how to take their careers to the next level!
Our mission is to become the largest music awards in the world, acknowledging and nurturing talent from a 360-degree view. Submit your music today and take the first step toward international recognition!
Be Heard by Music Judges in Hollywood
Our judging panel for the InterContinental Music Awards includes music gurus who have produced and written for big-name artists like Selena Gomez, Bella Thorn, Westlife, Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin and many GRAMMY® nominated artists, as well as worked with major companies like NBC, Warner Bros, and Sony.
Win Amazing Prizes!
You deserve to win a prize for your hard work!
At the InterContinental Music Awards, we support artists with prizes including $1000 cash, international recognition, increased fan exposure, music business mentorship, and cool sponsored gear and discounts.
The ICON Award Winner
Our annual ICon Award winner receive a $1000 prize, which will be announced in August 2024, along with all of the category winners. The ICon Award is given to one artist or band deemed to have made the strongest overall impression on our judges.
Winners – Original Music & Performance Categories
Our Winners will receive a high-quality ICMA Award Certificate signed and endorsed by InterContinental Music Awards Organization together with a wide range of career-enhancing prizes:
- A full scholarship to the DIY Music School, an accelerator online training program that rapidly connects them to the opportunities in the music industry
- A one-on-one private coaching with members of the judging panel
- Feature opportunities in major media channels
- Free promotion on our website and social media
- All Winners are automatically considered as candidates for the ICon Award
Finalists
Entrants who are chosen as Finalists will receive a high-quality ICMA Award Certificate signed and endorsed by the InterContinental Music Awards together with career-enhancing prizes:
- A partial scholarship to the DIY Music School, an accelerator online training program that rapidly connects them to the opportunities in the music industry
- Publicity and promotion via the ICMA awards website, our extensive mailing list, and our social media accounts
- Access to online lectures by members of the judging panel on “The Landscape of the Music Business” filled with professional opportunities and high quality tips
- Free promotion on our website and social media
1.You are welcome to enter the awards as an Original Music songwriter/composer/performer and/or for a Music Performance as an artist, producer, or instrumentalist. If you submit your original songs you need to have ownership rights to all submitted songs and therefore submit accurate information meaning they will not infringe copyrights or any other rights of any third parties. Full name of all co-writers also must be listed on the entry form. As performing artists you may submit cover songs. The judging panel will evaluate your cover songs based on Vocal Performance, Instrumentalist or sound engineering and production quality among other technical and artistic considerations.
2.InterContinental Music Awards welcomes all amateur and professional musicians/songwriters and anyone regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, color or race. If the entrant is under 18, parent/legal guardian should fill the forms on the entrant’s behalf and should email a signed parental consent form (Download here) to Artist@InterContinentalMusicAwards.com .Otherwise they will be eliminated from competition without refund.
3. Entrants may submit as many songs as they’d like, but only 3 songs per each entry form. (All entry fees are non-refundable)
4. As an entrant, you agree to have your songs submitted to myriad judges throughout the ICMA Awards process.
5. As an entrant you agree to release, indemnify, and hold InterContinental Music Awards, its sponsors, and judges harmless for liability, damages, or claims for injury or loss to any person or property relating to, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, participation in IC Music Awards.
6. Songs are judged equally on innovation, composition, production, quality of track, and cultural footprint. Different categories may have alternative criteria based on genre and musical style.
7. Please be advised that entering InterContinental Music Awards constitutes permission to use winner’s name, likeness, and voice for future advertising and publicity purposes without any additional compensation.
8. InterContinental Music Awards reserves the right to change the deadlines and entry fees for promotions or any other reasons. InterContinental Music Awards will do the best to notify you in due time of the progress of judging process and whether you have been selected as a winner. However delays may occur due to unforeseen circumstances and therefore we cannot be held liable for shifting dates. We will keep in touch with you throughout the process and answer any additional questions if needed.
9. If you provide false information or are suspected to do so, you may be required to sign the affidavit confirming the rights to the submitted songs. Failure to sign and return the form within the designated period of time may result in your disqualification from the award process. Affidavits are reviewed and verified by the InterContinental Music Awards.
10. Entrant retains all ownership rights to their submitted original song(s).
A. Acceptance as Official Entrants
- Entrants in Original Music – All entries are accepted and vetted by a screening committee of 3 using a standardized form and rating system; they consider the entry on the basis of Production Quality, Lyrics & Composition, creativity and overall vibe. All entries scoring 3 stars and above are accepted. They then become Official ENTRANTS, and their music is an Official Entry.
- Entrants in Music Performance (i.e. cover songs, remixes, etc) – All entries are accepted and vetted by a screening committee of 3, using a standardized form and rating system; they screen the entry based on the section the artist chose upon entry: vocal, instrumental or production quality performance. All entries scoring 3 stars and above are accepted. They then become Official ENTRANTS, and their music is an Official Entry.
- All qualifying Entrants are notified by email that their Official Entry will be moving on to the next stages of judging for consideration as a Finalist and/or Winner.
B. FINALIST Phase
All eligible Entrants are sent to multiple judges for consideration as a Finalist. Judges use a standardized form and rating system, and are chosen based on being appropriate to the genre, or specialty area of expertise. All judges are invited to view & comment on all entries. At this stage, Entrants may be named as FINALISTS.
All judges are invited to review all entries, and to comment, even if they are not judging in a certain category. This encourages maximum professional exposure to all the artists and their music.
After the judging process, the scores are tallied and accounted for, with the top scores becoming official Finalists.
Finalists will be listed on the ICMA website by the end of July 2023, and also notified by email.
Caveat: If there is little to no genre competition (i.e. 1 or 2 entries), the ICMA Organization reserves the right to move songs to a more populated general category to allow the Entrant the best chance to continue competing in the Awards.
1. Specific to Judging the ORIGINAL MUSIC Category
Entries in each genre, and on each continent, are privately judged via a standardized form and rating system on 4 qualities by at least 5 judges, which include at least one specialty judges in a fitting genre, culture, or continent; “specialty judge” votes are double weighted 2-1.
The Standardized Judging Form for Original Music Entries includes a five-star rating system that considers:
- Innovation
- Production
- Quality of track
- Relevance to the continent it represents (cultural footprint).
The highest scoring Entries in each Genre, on each Continent, become Original Music Finalists competing to win in their genre, i.e. Best Original (genre) Music/Song, (Continent).
2. Specific to Judging the PERFORMANCE Category
Entries in the Performance Categories are reviewed by a judging committee of 4 music professionals who screen the track based on the values originally indicated on the Entry Form: vocal, instrumental, production quality, or a combination thereof.
The Entries are judged using a standardized form and rating system to evaluate the entries in this way:
- Vocalist: Tone, performance techniques, and personal touch
- Instrumental: performance, techniques, personal touch i.e. arrangement
- Production: arrangement, mixing, mastering quality
The Performance Category is a global competition among professional peers. The highest score(s) in each of the 3 performance categories across all continents become Finalists for:
- Best Performance: Vocalist
- Best Performance: Instrumentalist
- Best Performance: Producer
ICMA reserves the right to place exceptional entries by Original Music Entrants in these performance categories, at no additional cost to the entrant.
C. WINNER Phase
All Finalists are eligible to become Winners, as outlined above; prize packages vary.
Winners will be announced on the Official ICMA Awards Day in September 2023.
Winners are automatically in consideration for the ICon Award and the single $1000 prize.
Winners are notified by email, and invited to redeem their valuable Winner Prize Package
D. ICon Award
The ICon Award is chosen after careful consideration and debate among the judges, followed by a “blind vote” on a standardized form. It is essentially the “Best in Show” Award.
The qualities taken into consideration include but are not limited to:
- music quality
- production quality
- stage presence
- star power
- professionalism
- online footprint
- global mindset
- career potential
The winner of the ICon Award is revealed at the end of the Official ICMA Awards Day in September 2023.
The single $1000 prize will be awarded within 30-days of the Winner designating a mutually-agreeable format for delivery of the funds (i.e. check, money order, cashier’s check, bank transfer).
The ICon Award winner also receives all prizing designated for the Winner Prize Level.
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Frequently Asked Questions
2024 submissions are now open through April 15th, 2024.
As performing artists, you can submit cover songs.The judging panel will evaluate these submissions based on vocal performance, instrumentals, or sound engineering and production quality, as well as othertechnical and artistic considerations.
Our goal is to evaluate music beyond billboard standard grounds from a global and ethnical perspective. Songs are judged equally on originality, melody, harmony, composition and quality of the production. Different categories may have alternative criteria.
Yes. For anyone under 18 years of age, we require a parent/legal guardian to complete the entry forms on your behalf, along with a signed parental consentform.
Yes. Entrants retain all ownership rights to all submitted content.
Our judging panel consists of musicindustry veterans, active professional musicians and Grammy voting members. They bring expertise and experience in writing and producing for many incredible singers from all around the world, as well as producing songs for films. They are among some ofAmerican media’s foremost authorities who have interviewed scores of celebrities and top-charting musicians.
1. A single $1000 prize.
2. High-Quality Award Certificate, endorsed by ICMA.
3. Scholarship to the accelerator online training program that rapidly connects musicians to opportunities in the music industry and helps them build their music career (worth $5000).4. One-on-One private coaching sessions with members of the judging panel.
5. Feature opportunities in major media channels that will give you exposure to a large audience, enabling you to gain credibility as an established artist and grow your fanbase.
6. Promotion on the awards website, mailing list and social media.
We offer musicians around the world the chance to be rewarded for their artistic efforts regardless of their gender, ethnicity, nationality, color or race. Our awards cater to music from all seven continents as well as regions or countries that restrict music freedom.