Josie & Tina Marie: Building the Josie Music Awards and Championing Independent Artists Worldwide
Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville
Josie Passantino-Boone and Tina Marie Passantino, founders of the Josie Music Awards, discuss their journey in creating a global platform th
Key takeaways
- The Josie Music Awards were founded in 2015 to fill a gap for unsigned and independent artists lacking recognition.
- Judging is based solely on artistic quality, with a team of industry professionals evaluating submissions without bias or public influence.
Main topics
- Founding of the Josie Music Awards
- Judging process for independent artists
Notable quotes
"You don't need to feel discouraged if they're not on a label... you are enough."
Conclusion
The Josie Music Awards continue to empower independent artists globall
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:05) Hi, I'm Tony Mantour. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville, where music, entertainment, and great conversations come together. If you haven't already, tap follow. This way you stay up to date, never missing the great conversation and guests coming your way. Joining us today is Josie and Tina Marie of the Josie Music Awards. They are two incredible champions of independent music, founders behind one of Nashville's biggest celebrations of independent artists, the Josie Music Awards, produced right here in Nashville, Tennessee. Independent music has a heartbeat, and we will be talking about how they went from creating opportunities for musicians around the world to building a platform that honors passion. talent, and perseverance. They have an incredible story. So thanks for joining us. Speaker 3 (0:55) Thank you. Thank you for having us. Speaker 1 (0:57) My pleasure. Speaker 2 (0:58) For Speaker 1 (0:58) someone hearing about the Josie Awards for the very first time, what makes your story different than other award shows that people might know? Speaker 3 (1:08) That's Speaker 1 (1:08) a Speaker 3 (1:08) good question. I think probably the fact that we celebrate and recognize independent artists and artists of all genre worldwide. So we have people coming in from all over the globe. essentially. Nice. The UK, Africa, India, you name it. We've had someone from every state in the US, Canada, you know. So I think that's what makes it a little bit different is that we celebrate independent music artists worldwide. Okay. And then of course, we celebrate the artists that we know and love are legends as well. Speaker 1 (1:35) That's great. Now, how long have you been doing this? Speaker 3 (1:37) Yeah, we started actually in... 2015. Yeah, 2015 now. Speaker 1 (1:42) Do you have a memory where you realized that this show could be something bigger than you ever imagined? Speaker 2 (1:48) Oh, wow. The moment that we ended up at the Grand Ole Opry House. Speaker 3 (1:52) Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking that too. I mean, we tried so hard to go to so many incredible special venues each year. We've been at the Sherman Horn Symphony Center, Nissan Stadium. Speaker 2 (2:02) Now Speaker 3 (2:02) we're here at the Grand Ole Opry House, which is a wonderful venue. We couldn't have asked for any better. And I think from there, and then also... You know, just knowing how much it's touched people over the years is what the big motivator for us is hearing all of the independent artists see, you know, tell us how much it's needed. And that's when we realized that what we're doing is actually impactful. Speaker 1 (2:22) It sounds very impactful. When you first started this platform for independent artists. Speaker 3 (2:27) What Speaker 1 (2:28) gaps did you see that needed to be filled? Speaker 3 (2:30) Honestly, it's funny because when I started, so I started radio when I was 14 years old on the Josie show and I was interviewing up and coming music artists and our legends. And I just noticed that there wasn't a lot at that time, 2009, right? Okay. Speaker 1 (2:46) When Speaker 3 (2:46) I was 14, 2009, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of places for independent music artists to shine. You know, you had to be in a label. Right. Speaker 1 (2:54) You Speaker 3 (2:55) know, it was very difficult at that time. So I realized then that, you know, there was a lack. And so I wanted to fill that. I wanted to fill that gap and give independent artists a place that they can shine and be celebrated like the major award shows that you see on television. You know what I mean? Speaker 1 (3:11) Yeah, I do. Speaker 2 (3:12) The other part of that, too, is that, you know, so many award shows, they either do it by voting, which really just talks about how many people you get push buttons for you. Right. Doesn't really say anything about your talent. And then the other end of that for the majors is that everything is based off of your numbers. Right. So how many sales you had, streams, all of that. We are based completely off of talent and the quality of your bodies of work. So it doesn't matter if you've got one Facebook friend or 100,000 Facebook friends. It doesn't matter how many albums you've sold. That's not what we're based off of. have our team which listens to you know your vocals they listen to the quality of the work that you've put out as your single you know all those kinds of things and they look at what you've done so if you're looking to be in an entertainer of the year category they're looking to see how you've toured have you toured outside of more than one state have you put out an album they've listened to your vocals on the album the quality of your singles that you put out any videos you know things like that and that's what determines you know whether or not you become a nominee and whether or not you end up being the winner in that category it's Speaker 3 (4:10) a deep dive Speaker 2 (4:11) Yeah, it's done a little differently than pretty much everybody I think does it at this point, especially in the indie world. Speaker 1 (4:16) Okay, so who votes for it? How do you set this up? And what's your criteria for that? Speaker 2 (4:22) Right. Well, we have an actual team of members and these are people who work outside of the independent industry. So they have positions that are, you know, maybe with the CMAs or maybe with the Grammys or things like that, record labels, etc. And what they do is they go through each submission that comes in. And from there, they go ahead and they look at whatever criteria it is that they're looking at as far as which category it is. You know, vocalist of the year, they're Speaker 1 (4:46) going Speaker 2 (4:46) to listen to your raw vocals. That's it. You know what I mean? If you're looking at something like single of the year, they're going to listen to your raw to the song, they're going to listen to the writing of the song, they're going to look at the production of it, you know, if it's something that comes out as a CD, quality of the cover, the artwork, and you know, all this kind of stuff. So depending upon which category, that's what they look at. Speaker 1 (4:52) vocals. Speaker 2 (5:03) Now, this is a very large team, and this takes them almost five months to get this job done because the amount of submissions that come in and the amount of time that they put into it, which is amazing. So we're very happy to have them. We do not announce who they are. We have NDAs signed all around the board, and that's to keep it as fair and honest as possible. So no one knows who they are, so no one is able to contact them or magically send them their work or do anything to get them familiar with them. So that's how we keep it as fair and honest as possible. Speaker 1 (5:32) Yeah. I like that. So when does this award show happen? Speaker 3 (5:35) Yeah. So it's actually going to be September 20th at the Grand Ole Opry House. We're really looking forward to it. And tickets are, of course, available now through Opry.com, their box office, all that jazz. But yeah. So what's really cool about this year is we're actually going to have a two night. We're going to have a learning aspect the day before. So we're going to have our JMA Music Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. I'm sure many are familiar. It's a wonderful. Wonderful venue, but also a hotel. A lot of people are familiar with it in that capacity. But yeah, so we're going to be at the Delta Pavilion and the Ryman Studio A and B in the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center for our J-Man Music Fest the day before the 19th. And then the following day is the big event, the awards. Yeah, Speaker 1 (6:16) that's great. I remember when CRS used to be at the Opryland Hotel. Speaker 3 (6:20) Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's wonderful. Speaker 1 (6:23) Yeah, I loved it out there. When they moved it into Nashville, it just wasn't quite as fun for me. Speaker 3 (6:29) Sure, sure. Speaker 1 (6:32) The Opryland had such a great feel. You could walk in different places and they had shows in different areas all over the place. I believe you have a really good place there. Speaker 3 (6:42) Yeah, we're looking forward to it. We love it. We stay there every time that we're in Nashville. So we're like, well, you might as well just bring our whole shebang there the day before. So we're really looking forward to it. Speaker 1 (6:54) So I think you started this show about 12 years ago. And in that 12 years, Nashville has changed so much. Before I moved to Nashville, I was traveling back and forth to it all the time. So I have seen such a change from when I started here to what it is now. So in 12 years that you've