Polaris Music Prize

Not to be confused with Polar Music Prize.

Polaris Music Prize
Current: 2025 Polaris Music Prize
Awarded forBest full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit regardless of genre, sales, or record label
CountryCanada
First award2006
Websitepolarismusicprize.ca

The Polaris Music Prize is an annual music award given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize, which was increased to $30,000 in 2011. The prize was increased to $50,000 in May 2015 by Slaight Music. Second-place prizes for the nine other acts on the shortlist also increased from $2,000 to $3,000. Polaris officials announced the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an award that "will annually honour five albums from the five decades before Polaris launched in 2006."

The prize, modeled on the United Kingdom and Ireland's Mercury Prize, inspired the Atlantis and Borealis Music Prizes for Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Polaris committee and SOCAN announced the creation of the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize, honouring individual songs in addition to the albums award, in 2025. It replaced the SOCAN Songwriting Prize.

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