Nairobi News

The Grammy Award is touted to be the highest music industry honor. The prestigious music award show is held annually to recognize artists who create significant musical compositions and songs by well known musicians.

The Recording Academy which awards the Grammy announced that they would hold its 66th Grammy Award on Sunday, February 2024, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, United States of America and the nominations will be announced on November 10,2023. The eligibility period for the 66th Grammy Awards will close on September 15, 2023.

Nairobi News unlocks the path for artistes to know how they can go about wining this Grammy Award in the upcoming ceremony that includes 11 fields: General, Pop & Dance/Electronic Music; Rock, Metal & Alternative music; R&B, rap & Spoken word poetry; Jazz, traditional pop, contemporary instrumental & musical theater; Country & American roots music, Gospel & Contemporary Christian music; Latin, Global, Reggae & New Age ambient or chant; Children’s comedy, audio book narration and storytelling, visual media & music video/film; Package, notes & historical; Production, engineering, composition & arrangement; and finally, classical field.

1. The eligibility period is from October 1, 2022 to September 15, 2023. Recordings must be commercially released, nationally distributed and available from any date within the eligibility period through at least the date of the current year’s voting deadline (final ballot).
2. The Street Date/In-Store release dates must be available to the public as stand alone purchases or streams, audio only by September 15.
3. In General distribution, the release of the recording must be available nationwide via brick and mortar, third part online retailors or on streaming services (paid subscriptions, full catalog, on demand streaming/limited download services) which have existed in America for at least one full year as of the submission deadline. All recordings must have an assigned ISRC. With the exception of certain craft categories, a recording that is not on a streaming service is not eligible.
4. For digital recordings, downloads/streams must be available on a nationwide basis, both the original file and the product sent to the Recording Academy. It must have quality comparable at least to 16 bit 44.1 kHz, copy of label/credits must be included in the metadata file and all requested documentation must be presented to the Academy.
5. Recordings must by non-infringing, original works of authorship. If it contains a whole or part of any copyrighted work of a third party, appropriate authorization to use and incorporate such copyrighted work must have been obtained. If allegations are made that a recording is unauthorized and does not meet these criteria, the Academy will consider the allegations and determine, in its sole discretion, the eligibility of such recording.
6. New recordings- Albums (contain at least five songs and a playin time of not less than 15 minutes) that have been recorded within five years of the release date and not previously released must contain at least 75% playing time. One will be disqualified if the recording dates on product do not align to the rule. The only categories that allow entries not newly recorded are Best Historical Album, Best Compilation Soundtrack Album, Best Immersive Audio Album (if multichannel mix is new), Best Remixed Recording (if remix is new), Best Recording Package (if package is new), Best Album Notes (if notes are new) and certain multidisc
   set releases in the Classical Field.

If you meet the above criteria, then you should proceed to exercise the highest discretion when determining the number of entries submitted. Entering more than one recording for the same artist in the same category may split the vote for that artist during the balloting process.

Remember, entries are not nominations, the online entry process is not a voting process and entries are not votes. Without streaming links or commercially released product (if applicable), your entries cannot be screened or verified, which can result in disqualification.
In addition to receiving an email confirmation and payment receipt for submitted entries, a secondary email containing a packing list will be provided if physical product is required. This email will indicate how many pieces of product is required to be sent to the Academy.

The Recording Academy states that the common reasons for disqualification including the same Album/Track/Single was entered in a previous year, the product is not a new recording, the required commercially released product or streaming link is not received by the Recording Academy by the deadline, the product was released outside of the current eligibility year and the product was not released in the United States (imports are not eligible).