How year-end music awards pick their winners — MAMA, MMA and AAA in 2026

Year-end music awards come one after another, and each one publishes a table of judging criteria. That table says what percentage of the result comes from streaming, physical album sales, a jury and fan votes. The ingredients are often the same; the weights and the counting windows are not.

This guide reads three 2026 awards through their organisers’ own notices: CJ ENM’s MAMA AWARDS, the Melon Music Awards (MMA) run by Kakao Entertainment’s Melon, and the Asia Artist Awards (AAA) hosted by Star News. Every percentage and date below was checked against those notices on 17 October 2026. Where an organiser has not published something, this guide says so.

1. Check the dates and venues of the three 2026 ceremonies

The Melon Music Awards come first. Melon’s MMA2026 information page gives the ceremony as 14 to 15 November at 6 p.m., at Gocheok Sky Dome. Munhwa Ilbo reported that this is the first time the MMA has run over two days.

The MAMA AWARDS take place on 20 to 21 November at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan. CJ ENM announced the dates on 31 March and said the show would stream live on digital platforms including Mnet Plus.

AAA 2026 takes place on 5 to 6 December at Kaohsiung National Stadium in Taiwan. Star News hosts it, and the AAA organising committee, MOTIVE and D-SOW run it.

2. Check which release window each award judges

MAMA’s judging overview covers albums and songs released between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.

Melon’s information page counts the streaming score for each category from every song released between 20 November 2025 and 14 October 2026. Three categories are exceptions. Global TOP10 is judged from 11 May to 14 October 2026, with no limit on release date. Track Zero Choice is judged from 5 October 2025 to 4 October 2026, and Hot Trend has no limit on release date.

The 2026 notices on the AAA notice board do not state a release window.

3. Tell apart the four ingredients of a score

The three awards mostly add up four ingredients. The streaming score counts how much a song was streamed and downloaded (how streams are counted has its own guide). Album sales count how many physical albums were sold (see the guide to first-week sales). The jury score is given by a panel the organiser assembles, and the fan vote is the votes fans cast in an app or on a site the organiser names.

Where the data comes from also differs. MAMA stated that it takes domestic and global song and album data from Circle Chart, and social media voting data from X. Munhwa Ilbo reported that the Melon Music Awards choose winners from Melon’s own streaming data, fan votes and an expert jury. The Global-K Chart score used for Global TOP10 adds up the chart data of Melon, Tencent Music (TME) and LINE MUSIC at 1:1:1.

4. Read the weights of MAMA’s four grand prizes

MAMA posted its judging overview on its official X account on 12 October 2026. The overview splits the grand prizes into four categories and gives a weighting for each.

• Artist of the Year: jury 40%, streaming 30% (domestic 15%, global 15%), album sales 30%
• Song of the Year: jury 40%, streaming 60% (domestic 30%, global 30%)
• Album of the Year: jury 40%, album sales 60%
• Fans’ Choice of the Year: Mnet Plus votes 90% and social media votes 10%, plus an additional 10% from the Mnet Plus live vote

Three of the four grand prizes give the jury 40%. Fans’ Choice of the Year is the only grand prize decided by fan vote.

5. Read the weights of MAMA’s other prizes, category by category

The overview also lists the prizes below the grand prizes.

• Award categories by artist: jury 40%, streaming 30% (domestic 15%, global 15%), album sales 30%
• Award categories by genre: jury 50%, streaming 50% (domestic 25%, global 25%)
• Best Song Top 10: streaming 100% (domestic 50%, global 50%)
• Best Music Video and Best Choreography: jury 100%
• Fans’ Choice Male and Female: in both the first and second rounds, Mnet Plus votes 90% and social media votes 10%

The artist categories use the same weighting as Artist of the Year. Best Song Top 10 is decided on streaming alone, with no jury.

6. Check the schedule and the cut for MAMA’s Fans’ Choice vote

The notice on MAMA’s official X account gives the first round of the Fans’ Choice Male and Female vote as 7 p.m. on 12 October to 11:59 p.m. on 22 October. The second round runs from 6 p.m. on 28 October to 11:59 p.m. on 8 November. All times are Korea Standard Time, and the dates here follow that official notice.

The voting platforms are Mnet Plus and X. Soompi reported that the first round selects 20 artists each in the male and female categories for the second round.

7. Check what MAMA changed from 2025

Sports Kyunghyang compared the 2026 scoring sheet with 2025’s. In 2025 Song of the Year was domestic streaming 40%, overseas streaming 20% and jury 40%. In 2026 it became domestic 30%, overseas 30% and jury 40%, so streaming as a whole stays at 60%.

For Artist of the Year, domestic streaming fell from 20% to 15% and overseas streaming rose from 10% to 15%. Album sales at 30% and the jury at 40% are unchanged. The genre categories moved from domestic 40%, overseas 20% and jury 40% in 2025 to domestic 25%, overseas 25% and jury 50% in 2026. The same outlet noted that Best Song Top 10 is new this year.

8. Read the weights of the MMA’s TOP10 and major awards

Melon’s information page describes TOP10 as an award for the ten most-loved artists and gives its weighting as streaming 60%, jury 20% and votes 20%. ZDNet Korea also reported that the TOP10 winners are decided by adding up those same shares.

Global TOP10 uses a chart score in place of streaming. Its weighting is chart 60%, jury 20% and votes 20%, and the chart score is the cumulative Global-K Chart score.

Among the major awards, KakaoBank Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Song of the Year and New Artist of the Year use the same streaming 60%, jury 20% and votes 20% as TOP10. Record of the Year and Global-K Artist of the Year are jury 100%. The six Best awards — Best Female Solo, Best Male Solo, Best Female Group, Best Male Group, Best OST and Best Pop Artist — are also streaming 60%, jury 20% and votes 20%.

9. Tell apart the MMA’s special and popularity awards

The special awards run to 12 categories, from Stage of the Year to Best Producer, and the information page lists every one as jury 100%. Music Video of the Year, Best Songwriter and Best Performance (female and male) are among them.

The three popularity awards each have their own weighting.

• Track Zero Choice: streaming 20%, jury 60%, votes 20%
• Japan Favorite Artist by U-NEXT: jury 50%, votes 50%. The vote is held on U-NEXT in Japan.
• KakaoBank Everyone’s Star: jury 20%, votes 80%. The vote is held in the KakaoBank mobile app.

10. Check when the MMA’s votes are open

The timeline on the information page gives TOP10 voting as 15 to 29 October and category voting as 30 October to 13 November. The ceremony starts on 14 November, the day after category voting closes. A vote counts as the vote share of each category’s weighting, which is 20% for TOP10 and most major awards.

11. AAA decides its Popularity Award in three rounds of voting

A notice of 4 September 2026 on the AAA notice board splits the Popularity Award into six categories: male actor, female actor, male group singer, female group singer, male solo singer and female solo singer. A mixed group is counted in the male and female group categories combined.

• Pre-vote: STARPOLL app, from 3:01 p.m. on 4 September to 3 p.m. on 11 September. The top 40 move on to the preliminary round.
• Preliminary vote: IDOLCHAMP app, from 10 a.m. on 16 September to 11:59 p.m. on 6 October. The top 20 move on to the final.
• Final vote: IDOLCHAMP app, from 10 a.m. on 8 October to 11:59 p.m. on 4 November.

The winner is decided by adding 30% of the preliminary vote share to 70% of the final vote share. Star News reported that the Popularity Award is decided entirely by fans’ votes from around the world.

12. Tell apart what AAA’s notices do not state

As of 17 October 2026, the 2026 notices on the AAA notice board cover only the Popularity Award vote. They do not say how the grand prize and the other categories are decided, or how much the jury counts. This guide does not state those figures either.

A notice of 9 September 2025 on the same board said that ten acts advanced from that year’s preliminary round to the final, and that the preliminary vote counted for 30% of the final result. In 2026 the final field grew to 20, and the preliminary share stays at 30%. Star News describes AAA as Korea’s first combined awards for both actors and singers.

13. Set the jury and vote shares of the three awards side by side

The jury sits in a different place at each award. MAMA gives it 40% in Artist, Song and Album of the Year, and 50% in the genre categories. The MMA gives it 20% in TOP10 and most major awards, and 100% in the special awards. The AAA Popularity Award has no jury component.

The fan vote differs too. At MAMA, the prizes decided by voting are the Fans’ Choice categories. The MMA puts a 20% vote share into TOP10 and most major awards, and 80% into KakaoBank Everyone’s Star. The AAA Popularity Award is decided by voting alone.

14. When something is unclear, check the organiser’s page and help centre

MAMA’s official 2026 page sits inside Mnet Plus, and the address 2026mama.com leads to it. The service inquiry link in that page’s footer leads to the inquiry form of the Mnet Plus help centre. The judging overview and the voting schedule were posted on MAMA’s official X account (@MnetMAMA).

The Melon Music Awards keep the schedule, award categories and judging criteria together on Melon’s MMA2026 information page. The FAQ on the same site is split into MMA2026, voting and events, and the venue.

AAA posts its voting schedule and method on the notice board of its official site.

Frequently asked questions

Which awards are decided by votes alone?

MAMA’s Fans’ Choice Male and Female categories are decided by Mnet Plus votes at 90% and social media votes at 10%. AAA’s six Popularity Award categories are decided by 30% of the preliminary vote share and 70% of the final vote share. None of the categories on Melon’s information page is decided by votes alone; even KakaoBank Everyone’s Star, which has the largest vote share, gives the jury 20%.

Who are the judges, and are their scores published?

MAMA’s judging overview describes this ingredient as evaluation by international panels of judges. Sports Kyunghyang reported that the detailed score conversion and the jury’s results are not published. Melon’s information page and AAA’s 2026 notices do not name the judges either.

Which data does the streaming score use?

MAMA uses Circle Chart’s domestic and global song data. The Melon Music Awards use Melon’s own streaming data, and only Global TOP10 uses the cumulative Global-K Chart score, which adds up the Melon, TME and LINE MUSIC charts at 1:1:1.

Which award judges a song released in early October 2026?

MAMA’s release window ends on 30 September 2026. The Melon Music Awards’ window runs to 14 October 2026. So a song released between 1 and 14 October is judged by the MMA and not by MAMA.

How is the AAA grand prize decided?

The 2026 notices on the AAA notice board describe only the Popularity Award vote. As of 17 October 2026 no criteria have been announced for the grand prize or any other category.