The Grammy Awards are making a change and it’s set to have quite the ripple effect on the music industry at large.
Full story below…
It was announced today that, in order to avoid a clash with next year’s Oscars, the 2020 Grammys will move up to a January (26th) broadcast date.
It was originally earmarked for the February 9th slot that the Oscars announced it’ll be taking last September.
More than a simple shift, the main implication is that the eligibility window for the ceremony has been shifted to a month earlier (August 31st instead of September 30th, as has traditionally been the case).
It’s only the second time in 44 years that the eligibility frame has been adjusted. 2009 being the most recent occasion, so as to steer clear of the Winter Olympics.
So why is this important?
Well, it now means that there’ll only be 11 months worth of releases factored into the 2020 ceremony.
More broadly, though, HDD points out that the change has many in the industry scrambling.
See, releases from big names are often timed around September – so as as to not only make the usual deadline, but to do so in a way that’ll see said material be fresh on the minds of voters. It also puts artist in great commercial stead for the ever lucrative “Q4” season. Put simply, for the superstar names, it’s been a win-win window.
With all the dates shifting, it now places much greater emphasis on the Summer; a time that’s typically slim on major campaign launches, given the laser-focus of labels on the latter part of the year.
Then there’s the mapping out of tours and TV promo, much of which is locked in months – sometimes even a year – before taking place.
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Though a seemingly small change, it’ll no doubt switch up plans for many an act. In as much that we could well see some chart returns occur significantly earlier than anticipated, while others may delay their re-emergence to capitalize on the next best frame.
Interesting times.