Good news for artists who only publish free music. The Recording Academy amended the eligibility rules to now consider streaming-only projects, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The news follows recent talks that the Recording Academy planned to open up the voting process to musicians across the spectrum of the music industry, which includes indie artist, Chance the Rapper. The Chi-town native released his latest soundscape, Coloring Book, which has a great chance of receiving recognition from the Academy given its universal-acclaim.
The victory this morning isn’t about me, it’s about all the Soundcloud albums that may now be recognized for excellence.
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) June 16, 2016
“The Grammys aren’t just peer-awarded, they’re peer-driven,” said Bill Freimuth, Senior Vice President of Awards for The Recording Academy, in a statement. “Throughout the year, members of the music community come to us asking to make changes to the Awards process, and we work with them to figure out how those changes might work. I’m proud of this year’s changes because they’re a testament to the artists, producers, writers – the people who rolled up their sleeves to shape the proposals and, in turn, the future of the GRAMMYs. It’s exactly what they should be doing. It’s their award.”
The entity also announced the renaming of the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration to Best Rap/Sung Performance. Artists seeking to possibly be considered for the nomination process must release music between Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 20, 2016.
Changes in the way the industry looks at music have been drastic since the immense popularity of streaming sites like Tidal, Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. RIAA announced that they plan to convert an artist’s number of streams on their albums or singles into sales, leading a bevy of musicians’ past and current projects to reach gold or platinum status instantaneously.