XM Canada is reaching out to the public for votes as part of its third annual Verge Music Awards for independent and alternative artists.

The digital audio company and content producer is connecting with indie music fans through mainstream radio and social media.

The fan voting begins today, along with the launch of a social media campaign that includes Verge Music Awards Facebook and Twitter pages.

There will also be a radio ad campaign on Corus stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Kitchener and Guelph.

The 60-second radio spots will include a bio of a nominated band with a clip from one of the band’s songs, Andrea Fiederer, marketing director at XM Canada, tells MiC.

‘We try to really heavily promote Canadian talent,’ she says. ‘The namesake of this award is a channel that we have on XM called the Verge, and that channel plays, on an ongoing basis, Canadian independent and alternative music. This is a good way to tie in our support of independent Canadian artists with an award show that has considerable funds to have an impact in their careers.’

There’s $55,000 in prize money for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and, for the first time, Emerging Artist of the Year.

ZenithOptimedia’s Toronto office handled the media buy. All creative and digital work was done in-house at XM Canada.

There’s also a contest to promote the online fan voting for the awards. The winners get a trip for two to Toronto to see the award show March 1.

XM Canada is also sending media kits to all the nominated bands that include online banners and buttons that can be incorporated into the band websites to facilitate voting.