The selection process was a combination of fans voting through the iMuzic.com website and through a panel of judges. "This was a very difficult process" said Indie Artists Alliance founder, Phil Peretz, "we looked at several factors including how many times fans listened to the songs all the way to conclusion. We factored this against the voting score to keep this from being a popularity contest where the artists with the biggest database would win the contest. Once we narrowed the group of songs we took the 50 songs to our panel of judges and they selected the winners based on their abilities to paint a picture with words. By doing this we uncovered some great independent musicians."