Times are a-changing over at the Grammys.
Keen to ensure that its system stands strong against the threat of errors and fraudulent voting, the powers-that-be have announced major changes today.
For the very first time, voting members will be allowed to vote online to create flexibility for touring acts and pull the heat out of any attempts to cheat the system by way of fraudulent voting.
There’s more.
Nominations Review Committees will be created for the Rap, Contemporary Instrumental and New Age fields. The nominations review process was established in 1989 as an additional round of checks and balances to eliminate the potential for a popularity bias that puts emerging artists, independent music, and late-year releases at a disadvantage.
There’s good news for songwriters too.
As of next year, they will be added to the Album of the Year category alongside producers, engineers, mixers, mastering engineers, featured artists who are credited with at least 33% of publishing on the winning release!
Bill Freimuth, Senior Vice President of Awards for the Recording Academy shared:
As an Academy, it’s imperative that we continue to meet the needs of music creators everywhere, and this year’s transition to online voting is an enormous step forward in the evolution of our voting process. We work diligently to ensure we’re keeping up with our ever-changing industry and team up with music people year round, across all genres and disciplines, to make sure we are doing everything we can to support the creative community.