Liverpool-Live

The award comes with an excellent prize, has been dubbed by the UK music press as 'the Scouse Mercury' and will reflect the city's rich heritage in pop, rock and roll, country, dance, soul, hip hop and jazz plus all stops in between. The shortlist of acts will be announced soon with the winner crowned at an awards ceremony in April.

Experienced journalists and senior editorial figures from the national and music press make-up the panel and all have plenty of experience of the perennially fruitful melting pot of styles that is Liverpool music.

First up on the panel (in alphabetical order) is Joshua Burke co-founder of Liverpool lifestyle magazine Waxxx, journalist, film-maker and Vice Magazine's global editor Andy Capper and John Doran, editor of the music webzine The Quietus - winner of Record of the Day's 2011 Digital Publication.

The second trio of judges is led by the award's founder Peter Guy, a journalist with the Liverpool Post and Echo and editor of Getintothis music blog which gives the prize its name. He is joined by Liverpool music promoter, Steve Miller, the man behind club night EVOL, and Paul Rogers, head of content at Liverpool Football Club, a former music journalist who has interviewed a diverse selection of artists including Public Enemy and Kylie Minogue.

The final trio of judges is Craig G Pennington, editor and publisher of Bido Lito! -the Liverpool music magazine, Alexandra Topping, a Skelmersdale-born journalist for the Guardian, who writes about everything from gang violence to pop music, and Matt Wilkinson, new music editor on Britain's most influential pop music platform, NME.

They will decide who is deserving of an incredible prize which includes recording time at Liverpool studio Sandhills Studio and a showcase at this year's Sound City and Liverpool Music Week. The winners will also play a gig at Vice Magazine's London bar The Old Blue Last, as well as having a promo shot by Virgin Media Shorts filmmaker of the Year nominee Ian Gamester to be screened at FACT, the city's art house cinema and creative technologies centre. Liverpool Live will also add to the prize pot by offering a video interview and advertising package for the winner.

Artists can still enter the GIT Award by sending four tracks to getintothis@gmail.com or alternatively post to Peter Guy, The GIT Award, Liverpool Post & ECHO, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3EB.

If you're a business and would like to get involved with the GIT Award, please email peter.guy@liverpool.com or visit www.getintothis.co.uk