It is possible to apply in more than one category, provided that the artistic achievement fulfills the respective requirements of each award category, e.g. application for Newcomer of the Year and Album of the Year. However, it is not possible to apply with the same artistic achievement in a national and in an international category at the same time.

For the German Jazz Prize 2025, the categories Debut Album of the Year and Debut Album of the Year International have been renamed to Newcomer of the Year and Newcomer of the Year International respectively, in order to highlight the focus on young, emerging artists. This is merely a change of the category’s name; the eligibility requirements remain unchanged. Submissions can include debut releases such as albums or EPs with a minimum length of 25 minutes. You can find all the criteria in the program description.

The requirements for the individual award categories, what constitutes a valid application, and which materials must be submitted in each case are listed individually for each category in the program description.

The application period for the German Jazz Prize 2025 ended on November 30, 2024. Applications for the next edition of the German Jazz Prize are expected to open again in October 2025. We will keep you updated with more detailed information here on this website.

No, there is no application fee. Submitting an application is entirely free of charge.

All applications must be created online in our application tool. The application tool will be made accessible at the beginning of the application phase (next application phase for the German Jazz Prize 2026 starts presumably in October 2025). In order for your application to be valid and considered in the review process, you must digitally submit your completed application via the button “Submit application”.

All award categories are endowed with a prize money of at least 10,000 euros each. Nominees who do not win a prize receive a nomination money of at least 1,000 euros.

Only links can be inserted in the application portal of the German Jazz Prize; unfortunately, file uploads are not possible for various reasons. We therefore ask all applicants to make files available via cloud solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive / Sharepoint or other providers. It is important that the link is permanently available and accessible. Time-limited links such as those provided by WeTransfer are not accepted.

The selection of the award winners follows a two-stage process: The expert jury votes from all the applications and proposals received in an online vote and a subsequent discussion, and in this way determines four nominees for each category. The nominees are then presented to the main jury which then selects the award winners in a joint vote. In the categories Artist of the Year, Artist of the Year International, and Lifetime Achievement, the main jury directly selects the award winners from all submitted proposals.

Each year the jury members will be published on the German Jazz Prize website after the selection of the nominees and prize winners. The juries of previous editions are listed here.

The expert jury of the German Jazz Prize is made up of a total of 25 personalities from the field of jazz and improvised music. In order to reflect all perspectives of this lively and multi-faceted music scene, the jury is formed as a representative cross-section of five people from each of the following areas: Artists, labels/publishers, clubs/festivals, management/agencies and journalists/media representatives. The main jury is made up of a total of 10 delegated representatives of the expert jury as well as 7 additional members who are outstanding and recognized personalities from cultural public life with an affinity for jazz. The juries are appointed by Initiative Musik in coordination with the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), based on a proposal from the advisory board. All juries have equal gender representation. Further detailed information on the functioning of the jury can be found in the jury statutes.

The German Jazz Prize 2025 award ceremony will take place on June 13, 2025 in Cologne.