WAM Member Consultation: Awards Programs
WAM is conducting a consultation process to guide its awards programs for 2026, which include the Song of the Year competition and the WAM Awards. These are both incredibly important, long-running events for WAM.
About
It’s important to remember the strategic objectives of these initiatives. The purpose of both awards is to celebrate the amazing WA music industry, recognise individual achievements, and use the winners to communicate the depth and breadth of talent in this state. They also help with advocacy to government for increased funding, and for individual winners they can assist with funding applications and other opportunities. Song of the Year is funded by Healthway, so it has a strong focus on communicating positive mental health messaging throughout the competition.
It is not WAM’s purpose to act as a gatekeeper, tastemaker, or to decide who is the “best”. We implemented a very strong policy in 2025 to ensure all assessment panels are made up of industry experts who are currently working in their fields. This is sometimes challenging where a program relies on volunteer judges, but wherever possible, we seek out industry leaders to advise us on what should be highlighted, celebrated, supported, discovered, and amplified.
We are constantly seeking to improve how our awards programs serve the industry. In 2025, we made improvements to the WAM Awards criteria and selection of judges to appoint experts in each category. We also reduced the number of categories to keep a better focus to the awards ceremony and communications. Meanwhile, for Song of the Year we updated the criteria and introduced new guidelines for the use of AI in creative works. We are now consulting with the sector to identify further improvements that may be able to be made in 2026 or beyond.
To help us get there – please complete the survey. If you’d prefer to have a chat, please email us at hello@wam.org.au or call the office on 08 6156 1240 before the 9th January.
FAQs
Why is WAM conducting this consultation?
We’re a very small team with some big ambitions, so to achieve lots with little, we need to be extremely focused and strategic in how we run our programs. We are conducting this survey to ensure we’re meeting the goals we’re trying to achieve to communicate to the world how amazing WA music is.
As part of our funding agreement with Healthway, we are committed to making the music industry a safer place and promoting positive mental health. We want to explore if there are ways we can continue to use the awards to celebrate individual winners but also connects our sector and helps us all feel part of something bigger.
Are my answers anonymous?
Yes, unless you put your contact details into your responses, your answers remain anonymous.
What will WAM do with this data?
Our team will review the responses in full. Where possible, changes will be instituted to the 2026 Song of the Year and WAM Awards based on the suggestions. Other changes may be delayed until future years. We will read everything, but we can’t promise to do everything.
What if I want to be involved?
If you would like to sign up to be an expert judge for one of our awards, you are welcome to contact us.
I have more that I’d like to discuss beyond this survey, what do I do?
Please email us at hello@wam.org.au or call us on 08 6156 1245 to chat to someone about what’s on your mind. We will be available between 5th-9th January for this – after that, we’ll be back working hard on projects to support the sector.
