The Grammy Awards will now accept streaming-only songs

When three of the best Chicago projects of the year (Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book,” Joey Purp’s “iiiDrops” and Vic Mensa’s “There’s Alot Going On”) were all streaming-only free releases, this is big news.

Today, they’ve evolved. The Recording Academy announced this morning that the Grammys will now take into consideration music that is available by stream only.

That means recordings released through streaming services such as Spotify, Apple and Tidal are eligible; while recordings released on platforms such as Soundcloud and Datpiff are not.

As streaming music approaches its cultural tipping point, the music industry has quickly taken notice.

His latest project, “Coloring Book”, is the first streaming-exclusive album to debut in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Previously, all members could vote in up to 20 categories, but the Recording Academy wanted to “encourage members to vote only in those categories in which they are most knowledgeable, passionate, and qualified”. Specifically, in the case of Best New Artist, acts no longer need to have a full album out to be nominated, but must have released at least five (and no more than 30) singles or tracks. But prior to this change, it wouldn’t have been eligible for Grammy consideration.

News of the change comes just a month after 15-year-old Mike Krasowitz created a petition asking the Grammys to reconsider their stance on excluding streaming-only releases from eligibility.

The best rap/sung collaboration is being changed to best rap/sung performance, so that artists like Drake, Chris Brown and Future who both rap and sing on a song can compete in the category alone.

“The process for the changes is one of the elements of the overall process of which I’m proudest, because it keeps us as current and as relevant as we can and it keeps the process dynamic”, Freimuth added.

The Academy also changed requirements for its Best New Artist category to reflect the way new artists break. The awards will be bestowed on FEBRUARY 12th, 2017; the eligibility period runs from OCTOBER 1, 2015 through SEPTEMBER 30, 2016, and nominations will be made on DECEMBER 6, 2016.

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