DJ-producer on the Money for awards

Last time it was the year of Scribe. This time the rapper's cohort, P Money, is the leading finalist at the 2005 NZ Music Awards nominations announced in Auckland last night.

The DJ-producer - who won two Tui awards last year for his work on Scribe's debut - has six nominations on the back of his own second album, Magic City.

But hip-hop doesn't dominate the Vodafone-sponsored awards, with a variety of styles and acts of different generations featuring in the major categories.

The album of the year award finalists stretch from the laid-back soul stylings of Breaks Co-Op and Fat Freddy's Drop to hard rock of Shihad to the art-rock of Phoenix Foundation and the classic pop of the Finn Brothers.

The single of the year category also features the Finns and Breaks Co-op, vying against P Money, Brooke Fraser and Dave Dobbyn.

Dobbyn, Fraser and Breaks Co-op are the finalists for the Herald-sponsored songwriter of the year category.

The 40th annual awards, organised by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, will be held in Auckland on October 5.

* Today's Timeout carries the full list of finalists, technical category winners, an analysis of this year's nominees and what our critics say about the albums of the year finalists.