Nominations for the 2016 All WNY Music Awards are now underway, running through Aug. 1.

The annual music awards, now in their seventh year, highlights the best of the Western New York music scene, from its artists to its fans and the businesses and organizations that provide the support to make it all possible.

There are 64 categories being awarded this year — the most ever in the history of the awards.

Nominations are done on line at http://www.allwnyawards.com/p/2016-nominations.html. People can nominate for only one category — or all 64. Multiple nominations are also allowed.

Once the nomination phase is completed on Aug. 1, the All WNY Awards staff will sift through the list of nominees to ensure that all nominees are from Western New York and the musical nominees accept their nominations.

Bands and artists can only be represented in three categories on the final awards ballot, so communication with the nominees is crucial to determine which nominations they accept. As such, we ask the nominators to include a link to the band or artists website or Facebook page to more easily facilitate that communication.

New for 2016, the nominees will be required to provide a photo, bio and audio sample, giving the eventual voters an opportunity to learn more about each artist prior to casting their votes.

Voting will be held Sept. 1 through Oct. 15 with an awards ceremony planned for sometime in December. The ceremony will serve as both the 2015 and 2016 awards ceremony, as we were unable to have a ceremony for the 2015 awards due to a transfer in ownership of All WNY Radio in November.

Questions can be directed to scott.leffler@allwnyradio.com or simply left on the “comments” section of the 2016 All WNY Music Awards nomination form.

Note, All WNY Awards will — throughout the year — award honors that are not music related. Each week, there will be voting and nominations for other categories including food and services provided throughout All WNY. Currently, nominations are being recorded for WNY’s Best Burger, found here: http://www.allwnyawards.com/2016/05/best-burger-nominations.html. Those nominations end today with voting to begin Monday, when nominations will be opened for a new category.

By Scott Leffler

Scott Leffler is the editor of All WNY News, program director of All WNY Radio, maker of All WNY Stuff and usually, the guy who breaks -- and then (hopefully) fixes things at All WNY. Aside from running All WNY, Scott is a professional narrator, voicing radio and TV commercials, audiobooks, phone systems, and a whole lot of YouTube videos.