The Recording Academy announces Album of the Year updates

The rules and guidelines for the Grammy Awards have been updated. As reported by Variety, the Recording Academy announced a slew of changes to the annual event, most of which will go into effect immediately.

Per the amendments, the Best Dance Recording category will be renamed to Best Dance/Electronic Recording, a second Technical Grammy Award will be presented, and singles that are not included in an album can be nominated in the classical field categories. Clarification is also provided on who can be eligible for music film field categories and the number of participants that can be awarded in the Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media category.

Among the more interesting updates were nominee and recipient eligibility changes for major album categories.

In the updated rules and guidelines, an album must now include 75 percent of previously unreleased recordings or new material recorded within five years of the release date to be qualified for a Grammy nomination — an increase from the previous 50 percent requirement.

Additionally, more people involved in making a project in the Album of the Year category will be acknowledged. Previously, those credited with at least 33 percent of playing time on an album were eligible to be nominees and recipients. Next year, however, all credited artists, songwriters, producers, recording engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers will be recognized.

The newly-announced amendments, which will be put in place for the 64th annual Grammy Awards, come after the Recording Academy announced the elimination of their nomination review committees. The “secret” committees — who were responsible for deciding a majority of the award show’s nominees — were often critiqued for their behind-the-scenes decision making, which consistently resulted in multiple Grammys snubs. After Diddy, Drake, The Weeknd and others called them out for their lack of transparency, the groups were removed.