The Mercury Prize is an award for the best British or Irish album of the previous year, as judged by a panel of music industry executives and experts. The prize is open to all styles of music and was initially established by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD) in 1992 as an alternative to the more commercial BRIT Awards. The prize takes its name from a former telecoms sponsor, ‘Mercury’, and is judged solely on the strength of the recorded album as opposed to record sales or media profile of a particular artist.