Hi Folks-
We want to address a comment that was made by one of our team members to Josh from The American Band last week. It was completely inappropriate and not sanctioned by the magazine. We deeply apologize for that response – part of our mission is to celebrate the small and upcoming bands, and that comment was completely opposite to the spirit of what we’re trying to accomplish. The person has been banned from our Facebook.
We also apologize to The American Band. Classifying you as a street / brass band was an honest mistake which we rectified as soon as we were told about it. With 275 acts to try to fact check and classify, many of which don’t identify their genres, we make a few mistakes every year. The nominations come from venues and booking agents who love your music but may not always know how to classify you – it came from a good place on their part, and we sincerely apologize for the mix-up.
A number of people are also expressing dissatisfaction with the nominating process. We are always open to input, and always looking for volunteers to help, and we make it as transparent as possible. It’s outlined here: https://motifri.com/motif-music-awards-process/
We are sorry to those not happy with it, but would remind everyone that the reason we do it is to celebrate local music. There is a huge amount of talent in our area, and we want to provide a forum to recognize it. We understand there is a degree of silliness to it – to the very idea of selecting one musician over another. That’s not the point. The competition gets people excited, it’s fun, it draws some attention to all the great local acts (there are links from every nominee we can find online, in the hopes of spreading awareness and letting new people hear their music).
Thank you, as always, for reading.
– Mike Ryan, Publisher
