The classical music industry is furious that the ARIAs’ inappropriate categorisation snubs the whole art form.

The classical music industry is up in arms at the prospect of the ARIA Awards Best Classical Album being won by electronica band Flight Facilities for their live album in which they are backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The ARIA nominations announced yesterday list the album as one of the five nominees, but Limelight understands that it has likely carried the category, the winners of which will be announced tomorrow.

“This album consists of Flight Facilities’ original music, with the accompaniment of an orchestra. The Flight Facilities’ compositions sit clearly within the electronic music genre,” a clearly frustrated Toby Chadd, Label Manager at ABC Classics and Jazz, told Limelight. “Under the ARIA chart eligibility criteria, a classical album ‘must be of works composed by recognised classical composers’, which Flight Facilities are not; or be ‘in a publicly recognised classical style’, which these compositions are not.”

A spokesperson for the Awards, however, preferred to shift the blame, saying that “ARIA does not decide what albums are included in each genre category, rather it is label members that choose the...