MTN has continued its involvement, making this the company's eighth consecutive year as title sponsor.
Barring the categories Best Selling Album, Best Selling DVD, Best Selling Download, the Lifetime Achievement Award, Music Video of the Year, Remixer of the Year and Record of the Year entries need to have been released between 28 November, 2009, to 30 November, 2010, in order to be eligible. Record companies must submit their entries using the forms on the proprietary online entry system at www.samusicawards.co.za.
To assist those who have difficulty accessing the web, RiSA staff have set up a help desk at their premises at Unit 4, 150 Bram Fischer Drive, Randburg. Staff are availble to respond to queries weekly from Monday to Friday. All entry material being submitted for consideration must reach RiSA by no later than 10pm on 30 November 2010.
Entries are open both to RiSA members and non-members. Entry is open in respect of any qualifying recording artist, director, producer or engineer, being a person who has been a legal permanent resident in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland or Botswana for a minimum of six months on the date of entry; or is a South African citizen.The same applies to artists comprising duos or groups, provided that not less than 50 percent of its members comply with the criteria.
The entrant must be a South African entity and own at least 50 percent of the master recording contained in the entry in question, where any other part of the master is owned by a non-South African entity.
RiSA reserves the right to request proof that all entrants, artists, producers, directors and engineers qualify as set out herein. RiSA also reserves the right to withdraw a nomination and a SAMA from any winner, who in RiSA's sole discretion, has brought the South African Music Awards into disrepute.
Rules guiding entry submissions are also available for downloading from the MTN South African Music Awards website: www.samusicawards.co.za. Here you can find a reference tool that serves as a guideline for the entire process of the awards. In addition the MTN SAMA 17 rules can also be requested from the RISA offices in Randburg.
South Africa's musical landscape is constantly evolving, and to reflect changes in the industry an additional category, Best Reggae Album, has been added this year.
For the second year, there will be an International Achievement Award to recognise and reward South African talent for achievements in territories outside of southern Africa that demonstrate their success in gaining recognition from audiences worldwide.
There are 68 categories at SAMA 17. Of these, 10 categories are not open for entry from 1 November to 30 November, 2010. These are the Record of the Year (the only public vote category), Best Selling Album, Best Selling DVD and Best Selling Music Download of the Year, which open for entry after the close of entries in all other categories owing to their extended qualifying dates, but use a different set of criteria that involve an audit as explained in the rules covering the categories; and Lifetime Achievement Award, which is bestowed on recipients nominated by the RiSA Executive Committee alongside that of the International Achievement Award.
The remaining five categories form part of the MTN South African Music Awards "Top 5" categories. Record companies cannot directly enter product into the "Top 5" categories, namely: Female Artist of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Duo or Group of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Album of the Year. To be eligible for entry into the "Top 5" categories, the album would have to be nominated within its genre category.
