Organisers of the Scottish Album of the Year Award have launched a new initiative aimed at upcoming artists – The Sound of Young Scotland Award.

Named after the Postcard Records slogan, the scheme looks to support emerging new Scottish talent by awarding them with up to £5,000 funding to help facilitate the making of their debut album.

Applications for the award are open until midnight on Friday 13th August – for more info or to apply visit www.sayaward.com/thesoundofyoungscotland.

The winner will be chosen by a panel of previous SAY Award Nominees and receive up to £5,000 funding to cover costs relating to the production of their debut album, such as producing, studio rentals, engineers, mixing, mastering, recording expenses and more.

The winning artist will also receive a bespoke art prize from The SAY Award Design Commission, plus a showcase slot at 2022’s final ceremony; performing in front of the biggest and best in Scotland’s music industry.

Artists must be 25 or under to apply (in a band, the primary songwriter(s) must be aged 25 or under, and all members should be under 30 years old). They must not have previously released an album and must have made Scotland their creative base for at least the past 3 years.

The new category will run alongside the annual SAY Award itself, for which nominations have just closed. Over 300 eligible albums have been submitted for 2021’s main award, and a panel of nominators will rank the albums in order of preference, before the 20-strong Longlist is announced on Thursday 16th September.

More at sayaward.com.