American Music Prize announced, rewarding the year’s best debut album

The U.S. has established a new prize that awards the year’s best debut album. Named the AMP (American Music Prize), it looks set to be the States equivalent of the Polaris Prize or the Mercury Music Prize, a prestigious award, the only difference being that it’s targeting new artists.

Founded by Scott B. Murphy - the brain behind the Australian Music Prize - it sets out to “encourage, discover reward and promote new music of excellence by USA artists.”

With the first prize awarded next year, eligible albums will have to have been released between 1st August 2014 and 31st July 2015, with at least 51% of the line-up being residents of the U.S.

The only other requirement involves sales (it has to have sold more than 1,000 units). Unlike the Mercury Prize, there’s no fee for submissions. A cash prize is thought to be in the region of $75,000-100,000.

Expect the likes of The Districts, Benjamin Booker and Les Sins to be in contention for the 2015 prize.

More details can be found here.