The Indian Music Diaries Awards, as always, are aimed at recognising and appreciating the indie talent that has cut through the noise. We are back with a 3rd edition to appreciate and support these hard-working artists , bands and musicians. Continuing to include all genres, we recognize talent from across the Indian music spectrum. From electronic to rock and metal musicians, all can now nominate themselves for the awards which will be judged by our jury members.
Following are the categories :
- Best Album Of The Year
- Best Song Of The Year (People’s Choice)
- Best EP of The Year
- Best Pop Artist/Singer-Songwriter Of The Year
- Best Music Video Of The Year
- Best Hip-Hop Release of The Year
- Best Emerging Hip-Hop Artist Of The Year
- Best Album Artwork of The Year
- Best Debut Artist of The Year (Editor’s Choice)
- Best Electronic Artist of The Year
- Best Rock/Metal Artist Of The Year
You can nominate yourself here. Only artists / bands who fill the form will be considered with special considerations from the editorial team.
Know Our Jury
Ashanti Omkar
Image by Akin Aworan
Ashanti Omkar is a film & culture critic, based in London. She works as a TV and radio broadcaster with the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), and is a collaborator with Canadian based music disruptor, maajja. She contributes to Total Film Magazine & their podcast, TimeOut London, Metro, Guardian, Eater London, and Girls On Film. She’s a member of Critics Circle (Film, Music, Inclusion & Awards Committee), BIFA, Sundance, BRITs, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Amit Gurbaxani
Mumbai-based music journalist, Amit Gurbaxani is known for his acute observation of the business trends in the Indian music industry. He has covered the workings of the independent music scene for almost two decades now and has also recently co-founded the Indie Music Allies, which is an organization for resource and information sharing for the independent music scene. Gurbaxani’s work has been published in various national and international publications such as Billboard, Firstpost, India Today, Music Ally, The Guardian, Red Bull, Rolling Stone India, The Hindu, Mint Lounge, Scroll, The Wire, Vogue India and many more. He is also the co-founder of The Daily Pao, an online food and culture platform that publishes a daily gig guide for Mumbai.
Neel Adhikari
Neel Adhikari is a Kolkata/Mumbai-based singer-songwriter, composer and music director. Neel is known for his work as a composer for the recently acclaimed web series Little Things. His other projects as a composer consist of What The Folks, Laakhon Mein Ek, Bose, Why Cheat India, Thinkistan Season 2, Afsos, Hasmukh, Kia & Cosmos, Ludo, and many more. He was in several bands namely, Five Little Indians (FLI) , Gandu Circus and Neel and The Lightbulbs. Now he performs solo as a singer-songwriter.
Sarthak Kulshrestha
Sarthak Kulshrestha is the founder of Bangalore-based live entertainment and booking agency Bohemian Entertainment. Heretofore, Sarthak has successfully curated over 100+ domestic and international live acts across the country with some of the biggest artists in the global music industry, such as TesseracT, Polyphia, As I Lay Dying, and CHON to name a few. Over the next few years, he plans to reinvigorate the Indian live entertainment scene by curating immersive experiences across genres from around the world.
Our Sponsors
CD Baby, one of the world’s largest independent music distributors, entered the Indian market in October 2019. Ritnika Nayan, who is also part of our jury was appointed to be the Indian representative of the US-based music distributing agency. Nayan also represents DashGo, which is CD Baby’s sister company. The company is said to have 19 representatives operating in 25 countries around the world. According to Tracy Maddux, CEO of AVL Digital, parent company of both CD Baby and DashGo, claims this expansion to be a great sense of commitment and belief in the future of indie music in India. Maddux also calls the company to be an “anti-label” with representing over 9 million tracks.
In 2015, the world was going through a “Gin-aissance” and yet, two bar owners in Delhi, India who waited expectantly for the tsunami of Gin brands were left high and dry. The country where Gin & Tonic was invented and where exotic gin botanicals are found in most home kitchens was still in the dark ages of Gin. If they wanted Gin, they were going to have to make it themselves.
They stepped out from behind the bar, got themselves a copper pot still and experimented with every spice, herb and fruit they could find. They found a lot, they distilled a lot, they tasted a lot and they fell down a lot. It took them more than two years and a lot of help from their mentor, Elizabeth Anne Brock, a board member of the Gin Guild, but they finally found a recipe they loved enough to not just want to serve at their own bar but to take to the rest of the country and the world.
Greater Than” or “>” is their London Dry Gin made in India using some of the best botanicals from India and around the world. Made in a 1,000 Liter Copper Pot Still source from Hungary, it is India’s first Craft Gin.
As per its name, the Gin looks for all things greater. We hope others do too.
As India’s first Craft Gin, Greater Than has always been active in supporting all things local, homegrown and classic.
Listen Greater is one such project that supports Indian musicians with a distinct style voice and message.
As an extension of the Listen Greater project, Greater Than comes forward in support of the Iocal music community the Indie Music Awards in association with Indian Music Diaries.
