International Online Music Awards
The International Online Music Awards (IOMAs), is a music award competition organized by R Cat Communications. The IOMAs were established by R Cat Communications in October 2003 to give independent recording artists (who had music available for PREview or download) the chance to vote for their fellow artists in a number of awards categories that had never previously existed before online.
IOMA nominations were invited to give artists the opportunity to show their respect, admiration, and appreciation for each other's MusicAL works and for their contributions and involvement within the global online music community. For the first four years, nominations were only accepted from artists and music industry nominees. In 2007, public nominations were invited allowing candidates to campaign for votes from across their fan base. In the same year, R Cat also decided to manage nominations utilizing an 'online' form rather than word-based or PDF forms that were distributed via email.
In it's first year (2003), the International Online Music Awards attracted 1,500 nominations mainly through mp3 upload/download community sites. In 2004, nominations reached 15,000 and have steadily increased to approximately 20,000 nominations (2006). Nominations are accepted from September 1st to December 1st.
Traditionally, final nominees in each of the 38 categories are announced on Christmas Day and final winners are notifed on New Year's Day with individualized Website awards and certificates being awarded free of charge.
The IOMAs today, has become an increasingly popular and respected music awards event gaining both media and music industry recognition. The competition is open to 'largely' independent recording artists, labels, and producers and also to major artists as well as to sectors of the media and music provider industry.