New Zealand Music Awards dump album categories for artist categoriesHannah Peters Lorde would now compete to be Best Pop Artist rather than have Melodrama compete to be Best Pop Album. Nominations for the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards have opened - but there is an noticeable absence of one word. The overall 'Best Album' category remained unchanged, but it was the one of the only categories that recognised an album rather than the artist. In 2017, artists could choose to be in either the Best Hip Hop Artist or Best Soul/RnB Artist category. Nominations for the 52nd Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are now open.

Source: Stuff June 21, 2017 00:59 UTC