Today, the Recording Academy announced that projects that are released through streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal, will be eligible to win Grammys.
Bill Friemuth, Vice President of Awards at the Recording Academy, said, “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.”
That means that one of this year’s most anticipated releases, Chance the Rapper’s ‘Coloring Book’, will be eligible for nomination for next year’s awards. Earlier this year, he retweeted a petition encouraging the Academy to recognise free, streamed music at the awards, and spat “I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the Grammy” in “Ultralight Beam.”
The academy has also updated the Best New Artist category to include artists who have released at least five singles, rather than a full album.
