Shortlist Music Project

Industry veteran and record producer manager Greg Spotts has a very cool project, called the Shortlist:

The Shortlist Organization, LLC was founded in 2001 by music industry veterans Greg Spotts and Tom Sarig to create opportunities for left-of-center culture to cross over to the mainstream. The annual Shortlist Music Project is the organization’s first endeavor, and will soon be joined by the Shortlist Fiction Project. Shortlist award projects enable respected members of the creative community to share their cultural discoveries directly with the consumer, without an intermediary or filter. The long-term goal is to build the Shortlist brand into a powerful recommendation engine that will help grow the audience for adventurous creative works of all kinds.

The Shortlist Music Project was formed in the Summer of 2001 to honor the most adventurous and creative albums of the year across all genres of music, focusing on emerging artists rather than established hitmakers. A panel of musicians, record producers, and music journalists (the “Listmakers”) including Beck, Mos Def, Macy Gray, Aimee Mann, Trent Reznor, Lucinda Williams, Michael Penn and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson each nominated their favorite albums, and then winnowed down the initial “Long List” of 49 albums to a “Shortlist” of ten Finalists. The Listmakers then convened over a private dinner on November 19th, 2001 and selected Sigur Ros as the winner of a $10,000 cash prize provided by 2001 sponsor Virgin Megastore, who also made a $10,000 donation to a Sept. 11th relief charity in the band’s name.

Sigur Ros were one of four Finalists who performed at the November 19th Shortlist Awards Concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Each of the ten Finalists received exposure on MTV2 during a Shortlist-branded hour of videos that ran seven times during the week of the Shortlist Awards. The Finalist albums were also prominently displayed at Shortlist-branded listening posts at Virgin Megastores throughout North American during the months of October and November.

The Shortlist Music Project will kick off in July 2002, and culminate in an Awards Evening at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood at the end of October. Planning is currently underway for the inaugural Shortlist Fiction Project, which is contemplated for the Spring of 2003.