1. General rules for the Emma Award and Emma nominations

1.1. Anyone can nominate their own production or one they represent as the recipient of an Emma Award, provided that the artist or publication in question meets the criteria set for Emma nominees. The project team appointed by the music producers reviews the proposals and eliminates those candidates who in its opinion do not meet the set criteria. The lists of qualified candidates are submitted to the Main Emma Jury, which will select the actual Emma nominees and winners from among the nominations. The main panel of judges may also, by a majority decision, nominate a production that is not included in the preliminary lists but which meets the criteria set for the candidates.

1.2 An artist who has published at least three different pieces or an album during
either the calendar year or the last two months of the previous year qualifies as a candidate for an Emma Award. Work published during the previous year can be included if it has not been included in the nominations for previous years.

The following policy applies to pieces of music produced in collaboration:

1) In the case of Main artist and Featuring artist, only the Main artist can nominate the piece (for an Emma) as their own work. The featuring artist cannot be nominated for the piece in question.

2) In the case of equal artists (Artist 1 x Artist 2 x Artist 3, etc.), all artists appearing on the piece may submit the song as their own work, but in addition to these, the artists must have published at least two other works in which they are solo artists during the period under review. In such cases, the streams of a collaborative piece must be submitted separately, not as part of the artists’ total
number of streams.

If an artist publishes an album that contains material that has previously been considered for an Emma nomination, it may still be nominated in the Album of the Year category, in its genre category, and in the Artist of the Year or Band of the Year categor y, if the album contains at least three new songs, of which at least two must have been placed in the Top 50 of the Finnish Official Singles List for at least one week during the period under review.

In the Song of the Year category, one published piece of music is sufficient for a nomination, and a piece published during the previous calendar year that has not previously been an Emma candidate or included in an Emma candidate publication may also be nominated. All candidates and candidate publications are required to comply with Emma’s values and ethical guidelines.

1.3. An artist who is Finnish or resides permanently in Finland may be nominated. In the case of bands, the majority of the members must be Finnish citizens or reside permanently in Finland.

1.4. Artists or bands who have published their first album or at least three different songs, regardless of the genre, can be nominated in the Newcomer category (Newcomer of the Year). An artist or band can only be nominated in the Newcomer category once. New compositions of solo artists, bands or their members who have previously been Emma candidates cannot be nominated again in the Newcomer category. An artist nominated in the Newcomer of the Year category can also be nominated in the Artist of the Year or Band of the Year categories

1.5. An artist or band can be nominated in either the Artist of the Year category or Band of the Year category (does not apply to the Finnish Artist of the Year by Public Vote category), in the Critics’ Choice category and in one category of their own genre (e.g. Pop, Rock, Schlager, Rap, Jazz, World music, Metal, Classical or Alternative).

1.6. Collection albums cannot be nominated in any category.

1.7. Any piece of music that meets the criteria set for candidates can be nominated in the Song of the Year category, including cover versions of previously published pieces.

1.8. A work, song or album produced exclusively using artificial intelligence without human creative copyrightable input cannot be nominated for an Emma award. If artificial intelligence has been used in the creation of a work, piece or album, the proportion of independent human creative work must be significant. The candidate must be able to present, if requested, a report on the use of artificial intelligence and the share of independent human creative work. If necessary, the Board of Music
Producers or the experts appointed by it will decide whether the nomination is approved.

1.9. The audience can vote for their favourite artist from among all the artists nominated for an
Emma award.

1.10. The Board of Music Producers decides annually on the distribution of the Export, Special and Golden Emma awards and their recipients. The Export Emma can be granted to an artist, band or person who has successfully exhibited Finnish music internationally or who has significantly contributed to the internationalisation of Finnish music through their activities. The Special Emma can be awarded to a person who has had a significant career in the field of recorded music or who has significantly contributed to the development of the Finnish sound arts industry. The Golden Emma is a lifetime work award that can be awarded for long-term and successful activities for the benefit of the Finnish sound arts industry. Anyone can submit a proposal for the recipients of these awards to the Finnish National Group of IFPI.

1.11. As the criteria for an Emma nomination are the commercial and musical success of a sound recording, a sound recording must have sufficient commercial success in order to be nominated in the categories assessed by the Main Emma Jury.

The categories evaluated by the Main Jury include:

• Artist of the Year
• Band of the Year
• Album of the Year
• Newcomer of the Year
• Song of the Year
• Pop of the Year
• Rock of the Year
• Schlager of the Year
• Rap of the Year
• Metal of the Year
• Alternative of the Year
• Music Creator of the Year (nominees for this category are selected by a special jury from the
Finnish Music Creators’ Association)

Commercial success is assessed on the basis of the Finnish Official List so that the nominated recording must have been placed in the TOP 50 of the Finnish Official Album List for at least one week at the time of review. If a candidate has nominated three separate pieces of music, at least two of these pieces must have been placed in the TOP 50 of the Official Singles List of Finland for at least one week. List placement is only required in the nominee series evaluated by the Main Jury, i.e. it does not apply to the Classical, Jazz, World music, Producer or Critics’ Choice of the Year categories.

1.12. A production completed after an artist’s death can also be nominated for an Emma award if the other rules set for Emma candidates are met. The Board of Music Producers handles all such publications separately and makes a decision on them on a case-by-case basis.

1.13. The Board of Music Producers annually approves the final nominee categories and the composition of the juries that make the selections. The Board of Music Producers may decide to remove from the list of candidates any candidates or publications that it considers to be in breach of the values, rules or ethical guidelines of the Emma Award.

2. Emma nominations and award criteria

2.1. The Emma nominations and the Emma Award are based on the musical significance and commercial success of the nominated recording during the period under review. Commercial success is measured by list success, audio streaming volumes, physical sales, video streaming volumes and radio playback achieved by the recording.

2.2. The above-mentioned criteria apply in particular to the categories assessed by the Main Emma Jury. Specialist jury members have the opportunity to assess their own categories based on their own views, but in such a way that commercial success and musical significance are also taken into account as key criteria in these categories.

2.3. An annually selected, category-specific Emma jury is responsible for assessing the musical significance of each Emma nominee. Musical quality and commercial success are the basic criteria in all categories.

3. Terms and conditions for registering for an Emma

3.1.By registering as an Emma candidate, you give your permission, in the case that you are selected as an official Emma candidate, for Music Producers Finland to use the sound recording(s) you have submitted, the artist’s/band’s promotional photograph and video clips from the music video in the social media marketing, communications and showreel presenting the candidates for the Emma Gala and the Emma nominations.

You also give permission to combine the promotional image and the recording, i.e. synchronisation, for the above-mentioned purpose (e.g. to present the candidates in the categories).

Services/websites where Emma candidates’ social media marketing, information and presentation of candidate categories are carried out:

• www.emmagaala.fi website
• Facebook: https://fi-fi.facebook.com/EmmaGaala/
• Instagram: (stories, reels, videos, posts): https://www.instagram.com/emmagaala/?hl=fi
• X: https://x.com/emma_gaala
• YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EmmaGaala_official
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@emmagaala

By registering as an Emma candidate, you confirm that you have received the necessary permissions from the producer of the recording(s) (i.e. the record company or other publishing party), the producer rights holder of the music video used in the showreel and the photographer of the promotional images to register for the nomination.