That’s all going to change because this morning, the Recording Academy announced some much-needed changes to its eligibility process.
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The Recording Academy has made a few amendments to their Grammy award guidelines, including one significant rule change dealing with what makes an album eligible for a Grammy nomination.
The albums and singles must be available nationwide between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016, in order to be considered for the 2017 awards.
When word came out that physical copies of Lamar’s “Untitled, Unmastered” would be available, speculation was that such a release was prompted as an effort to make the recording, which initially was streaming-only, eligible for Grammy consideration.
The move means Chance The Rapper’s critically acclaimed Coloring Book will be able to compete for trophies such as Best Rap Album and Album Of The Year. “Let’s make it so free”. In a statement about the modifications, the Recording Academy’s senior vice president of awards Bill Freimuth told Billboard: “The goal was to include recordings that were worthy of Grammy consideration that were streaming-only – which it turns out were a pretty small number – and exclude the 12-year-old singing a Beyoncé cover into her comb that’s easy to put up online also these days for streaming”.
The Recording Academy announced changes Thursday that will impact the 2017 Grammys, to be presented February 12 in Los Angeles. It’s exactly what they should be doing. That might just be the day Chance gets to take home his long-deserved gramophone.
Other changes include reducing the number of categories in which an Academy member can vote from 20 to 15, in addition to the four General Field categories.
Previous Best New Artist rules were amended to remove the album barrier given current trends in how new music and developing artists are released and promoted.
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Previously, the rule for a recording to be considered was that it had to be “commercially released in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product”, per Recording Academy language. Nominations will be unveiled on December 6, 2016. They also may not have entered into this category more than three times, including as a performing member of an established group.
