NEW YORK (AP) – Changes at the Grammy Awards include members voting in fewer categories at the 2017 show and songs only released on streaming services being in contention for nomination.
The Recording Academy announced changes Thursday that will impact the 2017 Grammys, to be presented Feb. 12 in Los Angeles. Streaming-only recordings – released on paid-subscription platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal but not for sale on iTunes – will now qualify for Grammy nominations.
“We noticed that there were a number of higher-profile artists who were choosing – for philosophical reasons as much as anything – to release their music through streaming-only, and we did not want to be exclusionary toward them,” Bill Freimuth, the academy’s senior vice president of awards, said in an interview.
Some acts, including Prince and Beyonce, have exclusively debuted music on Tidal. They later released the music on iTunes and other platforms. Chance the Rapper’s project, “Coloring Book,” was released exclusively on Apple Music and will have a chance to compete.
Other changes include the number of categories that Grammy members can vote in, which is reduced to 15 from 20. That number doesn’t include the top four categories – album of the year, song of the year, record of the year and best new artist – which all members are allowed to vote in. They were approved last month during the annual board of trustees meeting.