Mercury Prize to hold public vote in 2016

This year’s Mercury Prize will include an album voted for by the public for the first time.

In a shake up to the usual process, a longlist of twelve albums will be revealed on August 4th. A public vote will then be held to take one of the twelve through to a final stage of six albums, the the judging panel selecting the other five, and the eventual winner.

This year’s panel will include Jarvis Cocker, Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell, Kate Tempest, Naughty Boy and Jamie Cullum. There’s also a new sponsor, with Hyundai taking over from Barclaycard. All six finalists and the overall winner will be announced during the Awards Show on September 15th. [sc name="stopper" ]