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Grammy Awards 2016With the 61st Grammy Awards returning to Los Angeles in 2019, The Recording Academy today announced several changes and amendments to its awards process, most notably increasing the number of nominees in the “Big Four” General Field categories — Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — from five to eight.
According to the memo, which was sent to Academy members on Tuesday morning, “This change will better reflect the large number of entries in these categories and allow voters greater flexibility when selecting this year’s best recordings.”
And in other information of note to Music Supervisors, the Academy announced that “Music Supervisors of nominated albums will now be considered Grammy nominees in the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album category. Music Supervisors will no longer be eligible for consideration as album producers, unless they produced at least 51 percent of the album in question.”
In dryer news, the memo also revised and clarified some of the category definitions and guidelines — like this murky redefinition of “Best Alternative Music Album,” which reads, “To address confusion surrounding this category, the criteria and definition have been broadened and updated as follows: Alternative is defined as a genre of music that embraces attributes of progression and innovation in both the rock or a more intense version of pop and is typically regarded as more original, eclectic, or musically challenging. It may embrace a variety of sub-genres or any hybrids thereof and may include recordings that don’t fit into other genre categories.”