The Taite Music Prize: IMNZ announces this years winner

April 16th 2014

The Taite Music Prize: announcing this year’s winner & the Independent Music NZ Classic Record recipient

The winner of the fifth annual Taite Music Prize 2014 is Lorde for her album ‘Pure Heroine’ released on Universal Music New Zealand.

Grant Smithies, one the 2014 judging panel said: “..this was the year when a diverse bunch of grizzled music industry veterans/ writers/ record snobs chose a smart, challenging and original underground pop LP as the best record made here in the last 12 months. Lorde’s LP was a rare example of an underground pop record being so damn good, it went mainstream, not just here, but worldwide.”

Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of the country's most highly respected music journalists, this was the fourth year for the prestigious award. The Taite Music Prize's purpose is to recognise outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one album. Lorde wins a cash prize of $10,000, to be spent as she wishes. The Taite Music Prize is organised by Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ), and Recorded Music NZ kindly supplies the cash prize. The winner will also receive free recording time at Red Bull Studios and a year’s supply of Red Bull product, alongside a KiwiFM marketing campaign.

The award winner was announced at an invitation-only event attended by around 300 people at Galatos Live in Auckland’s central city. SJD, winner of last year’s Taite Music Prize, performed a live set for the gathered guests. The event was live-streamed to the public via NZ Herald Online.

The panel to determine the finalists was made up of a broad section of music media/industry specialists. The finalist judges made their decision based entirely on the artistic merit on the album.

Sales, genres, artist recognition or popularity are not contributing factors in their decision making process.

Also presented at the ceremony was the Independent Music NZ Classic Record, which aims to acknowledge New Zealand’s rich history of making fine albums that continue to inspire us and that also define who we are.

This year’s panel have given the nod in 2014 to the ‘AK.79’ compilation album (Ripper Records, RPR1, December 1979) as one of NZ’s classic records.

The award was presented by Kerry Buchanan (The Terrorways) and accepted by Ripper Records head Bryan Staff.

When speaking about the recognition, Bryan Staff said: “That’s fantastic! Dylan Taite was a friend whom I respected so this is a great honour.”

The Taite Music Prize
Presented by:
Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ)

Official Partners:
Recorded Music NZ / NZ On Air (NZOA) / the Taite Family

Supporting Partners:
NZ Music Commission / The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) / Native Tongue Music Publishing / Jagermeister / Red Bull / MOA Beer / Spy Valley Wines

Media Partners:
NZ Herald Online / Juice TV / KiwiFM

Previous winners are:
2010 - Lawrence Arabia ‘Chant Darling’ (Honorary Bedouin Records)
2011 - Ladi6 – ‘The Liberation Of’ (Question? Music)
2012 - Unknown Mortal Orchestra – ‘Unknown Mortal Orchestra’ (Seeing Records)
2013 – SJD – ‘Elastic Wasteland’ (Round Trip Mars)

ENDS

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