The People’s Music Awards is a unique way for unsigned bands and artists to showcase their music and get some exposure to the industry and to the public.

It’s got all the features we love in a music competition: unsigned artists, public voting and lots of good tunes to discover. Here’s a bit of the blurb to fill you in:

The TPMA’s are the worlds first Global Unsigned Music Awards and online Chart, that recognise serious talent across 9 music categories.  The concept is simple, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE, from the voting to the acts – If you like what you hear, vote for it and give recognition to the artists who deserve it.  TPMA is supported by numerous music industry figureheads who continually feedback on the artists and scout for future talent, with round two of the competition voted on by 17 Guest Judges, who this year include the legendary Annie Nightingale (Radio One), Eddy Temple-Morris, and Tony Platt (Island Studios).

If you want to get involved, check out the acts and vote for your favourites, visit the website and sign up (it’s free). Without being rude, ignore the front page blurb and click on either the Artists Directory or the Music Players to get started listening to the music!

The Music Players page allows you to listen to the songs in each category in a handy pop-up window, so you can continue browsing the site while you listen to the music. (I’m listening to Seventeen by Monday’s Headline).

I have to be honest, the interface is in need of some work – it’s nowhere near as slick as the Orange unsignedAct website I talked about a while back. Still, the music player is a great discovery mechanism.

My sources tell me that rock growlers Lavondyss have made it through to the final 2 acts in the “Indie/Rock/Metal/Punk” category”, they are up against cute female solo artist Silhouette. Check them both out – who deserves the vote? Oh, actually Silhouette does: simply because she’s from Northern Ireland. Well, we’ve got to vote for our own sometimes, don’t we?