The proverbial Fine Print:

PLEASE READ BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR BALLOT.

In keeping with the focus and mission of the Austin Tribute Band Community FB group, please only nominate bands/artists who are based in Austin TX. Votes for bands/artists who are based outside of the greater Austin area may be voided.

 

There are separate categories for Best Cover Band and Best Tribute Band. As has been established and discussed thoroughly and often in this group, there is a distinction between these types of bands. While some bands may reasonably be considered as belonging to either or both categories, you may only enter a particular band in ONE of those two categories. In other words, if you enter a band for Best Tribute Band, you may not also enter that same band in the Best Cover Band category, and vice versa.
***Doing so will result in a discarded ballot.***

 

This is to allow for both cover bands and tribute bands to be recognized, and to avoid any one band being given an unfair advantage in votes.

—————————

First-round voting ends on 3/6/2026. The top five in each category will be presented for the final voting round. (The total number of finalists for a given category may be fewer than five, or more than five, depending on vote totals.) First-round winners will be announced on 4/3/2026. Second round of voting will begin on or after that date, with the final winners to be announced at a date and time TBD. The nominees will be chosen based on a combination of nominee recommendations from ATBC’s industry panelists and votes submitted by the general public.

One ballot per person. (Ballot stuffers will be banned from the group. Any votes entered via this practice will be discarded. Don’t do it!) Write-in votes will constitute the first round of voting. Subsequent voting rounds will consist of candidates established in the first voting round. If a band/act does not meet the criteria for an Austin-based cover band or tribute band as set out by the guidelines in this group, the vote may be considered invalid. Those guidelines are shown in the Group page information on Facebook.

 

The ATBC Awards are in no way affiliated with the Austin Chronicle, the Austin Music Awards, nor any subsidiaries or parent companies thereof.

The administrators/moderators of the Austin Tribute Band Community Facebook group shall have sole discretion and final authority in all matters pertaining to questions, disputes, and general management of the ATBC Awards.

 

David Houston
Jennifer Yoder
JD DuPont

 

Each of the group admins listed above are also performers with various bands in the Austin tribute and cover band scene. Should any of those individuals and/or their associated bands receive enough votes to become finalists in any category, the admins may opt to recuse themselves and/or their bands in the event of a tie in the voting tabulation(s). This does not preclude these individuals from receiving votes and/or winning a particular category. Any such cases will be reviewed on an individual basis and determinations may vary depending on the circumstances of each.

 

Finalists in each category are determined by the total number of nominations received during the nomination period, including nominations submitted by both the community and our industry panel — a small group of local music-industry professionals (bookers, talent buyers, social media managers, etc.). Their participation helps ensure a broad and balanced nomination pool.
Each category will include five finalists by default, with six finalists as the maximum.

 

In practice, this means that bands receiving only one nomination will not affect the finalist count unless they are actually tied for a finalist position based on total nominations. For example, if five nominees each receive multiple nominations and a number of others receive just one nomination, the five highest-vote nominees will simply become the finalists.

 

If there is a tie for the final finalist position, all tied nominees will advance up to a maximum of six finalists.

 

If a tie would result in more than six finalists, the tie will be broken using the number of unique nominators supporting each nominee. If a tie still remains, the final determination will be made by the industry panel in conjunction with the ATBC group admins.

To keep things fair, only one nomination per person per category is counted, and duplicate submissions may be consolidated.