Men dominate almost every single category in the nominations for the 2013 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards announced on Tuesday in Sydney.

Women were not included in the nominations for Best Album or Best Group, and out of the 10 tunes nominated for Song of the Year, only one was performed by a woman.

Industry insiders say they are disappointed but not surprised and are calling for quotas to boost women's recognition in Australian music.

Fairfax senior music writer Bernard Zuel says he is not surprised that the list is a little light on the ladies.

"It's just the way things are with the music industry in general, the Australian music industry in particular, it's not a systemic bias as such in that there aren't people actively blocking women," he said.

Zuel, who has written extensively about women's under-representation in awards and 'Best of' lists, believes many music fans, critics and musicians subconsciously reject women in music.

"They struggle to see a female artist as being as substantial as a male one," he said.

"There's also a reasonable proportion of women who have a view of female artists as just not being qualified."

ARIA nominations are decided by a voting academy of around 800 people from within the music industry, including labels, press and radio.

ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen says this year's nominations are an accurate representation of the 2013 music scene.

"I think it's a really good mix of what's gone on over the last 12 months; it's quite band-heavy this year - you know, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Tame Impala, Birds Of Tokyo, Empire Of The Sun - and I think it does reflect where we're going," he said.

Rosen concedes this year is a little "bloke heavy", but points to last year when two female singers were nominated for Album of the Year.

"Last year was very female-dominated. You just see things go in cycles: last year was a very big year female-wise, I think this year - you're right - it probably is a bit more male-dominated, but these things go in cycles," he said.

Singer-songwriter Abbe May is nominated for Best Female Artist for her fourth album Kiss My Apocalypse but is disappointed with the lack of female representation in this year's ARIA nominations list.

"To me, Australian female musicians and artists are amongst the greatest in the world and I don't know why men tend to get more favour in these situations," she said.

"We need to just keep talking about it, bring it up - Where are the women?"

But it was not all gloom or Flume at the ARIA nomination announcement in Sydney.

Virginia Read was named Producer of the Year for her work on Sally Whitwell's album All Imperfect Things.

She is the first woman to ever win the award.