How the winners are chosen

1. A judging panel of New Zealand songwriters listen to all entries (usually around 300+ songs) and choose the 20 songs they think are the best.
2. All the judges’ top songs are collated into a long list for discussion at the judging panel meeting. The judging panel meets in person to discuss this long list and work out the top 20.
3. All NZ APRA members (around 10,000 songwriters) are invited to listen to the top 20 songs and vote for the five songs they think are best, in order.
4. These votes are collated to determine the top five finalists and the overall winner of the APRA Silver Scroll Award.
5. Both judges and voters are asked to choose the best songs on the basis of artistic merit only – neither commercial nor critical success is a factor in determining their votes.
6. Entries: Anyone who is a New Zealand APRA member can enter. It’s free to be an APRA member, and it’s also free to enter. There are a number of eligibility criteria which you can check out in detail on our website but to put it simply, the song must have been written (at least in part) by an APRA member who is a New Zealand citizen or resident and must have been released between 1 June of the previous year and 31 May of the current year.
7. Judging: Because it’s very time consuming to listen to 300+ songs, we break the judging and voting process into two phases. The first phase involves a judging panel of New Zealand songwriters who listen to all 300+ songs, and then choose the 20 best songs from all the entries. We announce this judging panel publicly. They aim to come up with a list that reflects our diverse local music landscape, as well as being great songs.
8. Voting: Once the Top 20 songs have been decided upon and announced, it is up to the APRA membership (which consists of 10,000 NZ songwriters) to listen to those 20 songs and vote for their top five songs, in order.

For greater detail about each step see below.

• Entries: Anyone who is a New Zealand APRA member can enter. It’s free to be an APRA member, and it’s also free to enter. There are a number of eligibility criteria which you can check out in detail on our website but to put it simply, the song must have been written (at least in part) by an APRA member who is a New Zealand citizen or resident and must have been released between 1 June of the previous year and 31 May of the current year.
  
  We spend a considerable amount of time and energy trying to contact anyone who may be eligible to enter and let them know that entries are open. We generally receive between 300 and 400 eligible entries.
   
• Judging: Because it’s very time consuming to listen to 300+ songs, we break the judging and voting process into two phases. The first phase involves a judging panel of New Zealand songwriters who listen to all 300+ songs, and then choose the 20 best songs from all the entries. We announce this judging panel publicly. They aim to come up with a list that reflects our diverse local music landscape, as well as being great songs.
  
  They work through this judging process in two parts – firstly they listen to all the songs in their own time, over several weeks, and choose their individual 20 top songs.
  
  They don’t know who wrote each song at this point, they are only the given the audio, song title and lyrics, so judging is done with as little bias as possible.
  
  They categorise their top songs into three tiers. The songs in each tier are apportioned a score, and these scores are tallied up to create a long list of around 50 songs to discuss. We then hold a meeting which everyone attends in person, and discuss all these songs, until a consensus is reached about the top 20. It can be a pretty long meeting.
• Voting: Once the Top 20 songs have been decided upon and announced, it is up to the APRA membership (which consists of 10,000 NZ songwriters) to listen to those 20 songs and vote for their top five songs.
  
  All APRA members are sent an email invitation which sends them to the voting portal where they can log in, listen to the tracks, and place their votes.
  
  They rank their top five, and each song is given a weighted score depending on the ranking – the songs in first position gets 5 points, second position gets 4 points, third position gets 3 points, fourth position gets 2 points, and fifth position gets 1 point.
  
  These scores are all added together to find the five songs with the most points, and these voting scores dictate the five finalists and the winner of the award.

It is worth noting that the judges and voters are both simply asked to pick the songs they think are the best. There are no criteria about the commercial or critical success of the song, it is purely based on artistic merit. Obviously, the artistic merit of a song is highly subjective, which is why the Silver Scroll Award winner is chosen by a very large number of fellow songwriters.

1. A judging panel of reo Māori experts and kaitito puoro listen to all entries (usually around 30+ waiata) and choose the 5 songs they think are the best.
2. All the judges’ votes are collated, outlining a Top 5 shortlist. If there isn't a clear top 5, a meeting is called with all judges to discuss and finalise the Maioha Top 5 list. (In 2025, the shortlist was extended to 10 waiata to reflect the increased volume and quality of waiata reo Māori being released.)
3. All NZ APRA members (around 10,000 songwriters) are invited to listen to the top 5 waiata and vote for the three songs they think are best, in order.
4. These votes are collated to determine the top 3 finalists and the overall winner of the APRA Maioha Award.
5. Both judges and voters are asked to choose the best waiata on the basis of artistic merit only – neither commercial nor critical success is a factor in determining their votes.
6. Entries: Anyone who is a New Zealand APRA member can enter. It’s free to be an APRA member, and it’s also free to enter. There are a number of eligibility criteria which you can check out in detail on our website but to put it simply:
   1. the song must have been written (at least in part) by an APRA member who is a New Zealand citizen or resident.
   2. the lyrics must be written predominantly in te reo Māori.
   3. and the waiata needs to have been released to public between 1 June of the previous year and 31 May of the current year. Read full terms and conditions here.
7. Judging: The judging panel is given at least three weeks to listen to all waiata and submit their top picks to us. They are presented the audio file and lyrics with translations - no band or artist names. This is so we can avoid bias as much as possible.
8. Voting: Once the top 5 waiata have been decided upon and announced, it is up to the APRA membership (which consists of 10,000 NZ songwriters) to listen to those waiata and vote for their top three songs, in order.