The Shortlist Music Prize was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under the name Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music, the award was created by two music-industry directors, Greg Spotts and Tom Serig, as an alternative to the commercial Grammy Awards. The recipient was chosen by a panel of members of the entertainment industry and journalists known as "Listmakers". More than 50 of the best albums of the previous twelve months were picked before being narrowed down to the eponymous shortlist, from which a winner was chosen. At the end of 2001, the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós (pictured) became the first recipients following a ceremony at the Hollywood Knitting Factory. The majority of the seven winners were singer-songwriters: Irishman Damien Rice won in 2003, Americans Sufjan Stevens and Cat Power won in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and Canadian Feist won in 2007. (Full list...)