More on the BBC Music Awards

From the article Takács Quartet Tops First BBC Music Awards by Ben Mattison for PlaybillArts.com, we learn more about their origin:

A jury of critics from BBC Music and other publications chose nominees for the awards from among discs that were released in 2005 and received five stars in the magazine. The category winners were picked in a public vote; the jury selected the disc of the year and the winners of the newcomer, premiere, technical, and DVD awards.

Andy Benham, publisher of BBC Music, said, "When we announced the launch of the awards in October 2005, we said that the success or failure of them would be judged on the simple criteria of whether or not we could stimulate the market and increase sales of classical music CDs. Looking at the sales figures of the nominated discs to date, I’m delighted that both record companies and key retailers have reported excellent uptake of the CDs. Now that the names of the winners are out there, we’re hoping that the uplift in the market that we’ve engendered will continue, if not accelerate."