Deli readers, indie bands and artists,

This year, our Year End 2011 Polls for emerging artists are proving to be more challenging than ever, with 11 US scenes involved and 1,500+ submissions between our own system and the Sonic Bids applications. We are spending a significant portion of the our Holidays listening to your music (thanks for that by the way!), and we haven't even had the chance to check out the bands selected by our jury of local promoters, bloggers and scene makers yet...

ANYWAYYYY... the results of the Open Submissions are slowly coming toget and we are slowly going to publish them starting with NYC (check back!). Sonic Bids selections will be coming after that.

Whether you were selected or not, it's always good to remember that in 1961 The Beatles were rejected by Decca with the following gems: "guitar groups are on the way out" and "The Beatles have no future in show business." Take that as a friendly reminder that there is no final authority on music, despite what pitchfork.com would have you believe.

Year End Poll Next Phase: The Fans' Poll
The next phase of the Poll - a vote open to the fans - is likely to start in the first week of January and end at the end of that same month. We'll spread the cities out a little bit to minimize contemporary traffic spikes that repeatedly brought our site down last year. So stay tuned. We should have the final results for our two separate final charts (fans poll and composite chart including the jurors' vote) by the end of January.

Also, of course all this is possible also because of our sponsors - many of them are providing free studio time and prizes for the winners. Here they are - God Bless 'em!

LIST OF PRIZES FOR POLL WINNERS COMING SOON!

The Deli's Staff