Recording Academy Makes Major Changes
• The Recording Academy® on Friday announced significant changes to its Awards process “that reflect its ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape and to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards® rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable.” Among the changes: the elimination of the “secret” Nominations Review Committees (see Weeknd, The), a reduction in the number of categories in which voters may vote, two GRAMMY® Award category additions, and more. These updates are a result of extensive discussions and collaboration over the course of the last year amongst a special subcommittee of Recording Academy members and elected leaders, and were voted on by the Academy’s Board of Trustees on Friday, April 30, 2021. These changes go into effect immediately for the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards® scheduled for Jan. 31, 2022. The eligibility period for the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards is Sept. 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2021. Additional rule amendment proposals will be discussed and voted on at an upcoming Recording Academy meeting and the full rulebook for the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be released in May.
“It’s been a year of unprecedented, transformational change for the Recording Academy, and I’m immensely proud to be able to continue our journey of growth with these latest updates to our Awards process,” said Harvey Mason Jr. (left), Chair & Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy. “This is a new Academy, one that is driven to action and that has doubled down on the commitment to meeting the needs of the music community. While change and progress are key drivers of our actions, one thing will always remain — the GRAMMY Award is the only peer-driven and peer-voted recognition in music. We are honored to work alongside the music community year-round to further refine and protect the integrity of the Awards process.”
Approved Rule Amendments Include: Nominations in all of the GRAMMY Award general and genre fields will now be determined by a majority, peer-to-peer vote of voting members of the Recording Academy. Previously, many of the categories within these fields utilized 15-30 of what were described in the release as “highly skilled music peers,” who represented and voted within their genre communities for the final selection of nominees. With this change, the results of GRAMMY nominations and winners are placed back in the hands of the entire voting membership body, giving further validation to the peer-recognized process. To further support this amendment, the Academy has confirmed that more than 90 percent of its members will have gone through the requalification process by the end of this year, ensuring that the voting body is actively engaged in music creation.
• And to ensure music creators are voting in the categories in which they are most knowledgeable and qualified, the number of specific genre field categories in which GRAMMY Award Voters may vote has been reduced from 15 to 10. Additionally, those 10 categories must be within no more than three fields. All voters are permitted to vote in the four General Field categories (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist). Proposed by a special voting Task Force who brought forth the recommendation, this change serves as an additional safeguard against bloc voting and helps to uphold the GRAMMY Award as a celebration of excellence in music, with specific genre field categories being voted on by the most qualified peers.
• The new new categories are “Best Global Music Performance” (Global Music Field) and “Best Música Urbana Album” (Latin Music Field), bringing the total number of GRAMMY Award categories to 86.
“The latest changes to the GRAMMY Awards process are prime examples of the Recording Academy’s commitment to authentically represent all music creators and ensure our practices are in lock-step with the ever-changing musical environment,” said Ruby Marchand, Chief Industry Officer at the Recording Academy. “As we continue to build a more active and vibrant membership community, we are confident in the expertise of our voting members to recognize excellence in music each year.” For more information on the Awards process, visit grammy101.com.
