Nominations are now open for Scotland’s national music prize, The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award.

This year, The SAY Award will return to Stirling’s Albert Halls on Thursday 26th October where the artist with the winning album will collect a £20,000 prize alongside the coveted title.

Nominations are now open for the SAY Award 2023 with artists, labels and music fans able to submit eligible albums for free via The SAY Awards website with submissions closing at midnight on Friday 21st July.

To be considered for The SAY Award 2023, eligible albums must have been released between 1st June 2022 – 31st May 2023.

The SAY Award winner will receive a £20,000 prize and the prestigious title of Scottish Album of the Year, whilst nine runners up each receive £1,000, as well as bespoke prizes created by a Stirling-based artist through The SAY Award Design Commission. Additional awards including Modern Scottish Classic and the Sound of Young Scotland will also be distributed on the night, plus fans, journalists and artists will be treated to special live performance.

Once all eligible albums have been collated, 100 impartial ‘Nominators’, chosen from sectors including journalism, music retail and music venues across Scotland, nominate and rank their five favourite albums in order of preference. The SMIA assigns a score to each title in a Nominator’s Top 5, before announcing the 20 highest scoring albums as The SAY Award Longlist.

The Longlist will then be whittled down to a Shortlist of 10 albums, one of which will be chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online public vote. The remaining nine albums will be chosen by The SAY Award judging panel, with the judging panel then choosing the winning album at 2023’s ceremony.

To submit albums for FREE, plus view eligibility criteria and guidelines for 2023’s award, visit www.sayaward.com.