The ECMA has announced that submissions for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards: Festival and Conference will open on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 9:30 NT time. In a significant move to promote inclusivity and accessibility, submission fees will be waived for the first 48 hours, until Thursday, Sept. 5 at 9 a.m. AT (9:30 a.m. NT).

“We’ve made significant changes to make the application process clearer this year and more accessible, especially with the introduction of a free submission period,” says ECMA Director of Programming, Anthony Carew. “We understand the financial pressures many artists are facing post-pandemic, and we want to support them in every way possible.” 

In line with industry trends and feedback from the music community, ECMA has also streamlined the criteria for genre-based award categories this year. All submissions — whether an album, a single, an EP, a waterfall release, a visual album, or any other format — will be evaluated on an equal plane by jurors. To reflect this shift, category titles have been updated from “Recording” to “Release.”

Additionally, the Producer of the Year Award has been reclassified as a music award rather than an industry award, highlighting the essential creative role that producers play in music creation today.

“Our goal with these changes is threefold: to ensure better representation and inclusion across regional, gender, cultural, diversity, and musical genre lines; to create fairer and more transparent processes that standardize the value of an ECMA; and to stay ahead of the ever-evolving music industry,” says ECMA Chief Executive Officer, Blanche Israël. “We believe these updates will help us achieve that vision.”

The 2025 ECMAs will feature several new awards, including: Solo Artist of the Year, Group of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Vocal Release of the Year recognizing an exceptional release in vocal music (e.g. throat singing, unaccompanied rap, beatboxing, a capella singing, barbershop quartet, choral/collective singing, vocal looping), and Content Creator of the Year (Industry Award) celebrating a visual artist who has contributed to the Atlantic Canadian music industry through the creation of visuals for artist promotion.