The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2018 is now open for entries, with artists, labels and music fans being urged to submit eligible albums to the SAY Award website to be considered for this year’s award.

Since Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells took the first prize in 2012, the SAY Award has been awarded to the likes of Anna Meredith, Young Fathers, Kathryn Joseph, RM Hubbert, and last year, Sacred Paws (pictured).

This year’s SAY Award ceremony will take place on Thursday 6th September, again at Paisley Town Hall. The winning artist will receive a £20,000 cash prize, with the nine runners up each being awarded £1,000.

Most crucially, artists who have released eligible albums between April 1st 2017 and March 31st 2018 (the odd date span following a change from calendar year to financial) should enter their details on the SAY website, as some significant, potentially prize-winning release have been missed in the past owing to artists failing to enter before the deadline.

This year, the latest that submissions can be received is 23:59 on Thursday 31st May.

Following the close of entries, a process of judging – first by 100 ‘nominators’, and then a whittling-down by industry judges, will lead to the final 20, then 10, and ultimately the winner of the £20,000 prize. But there will be a lot more to follow on that over the coming months…

More at www.sayaward.com / facebook.com/SAYaward