The Recording Academy has made some adjustments to its criteria around songs and albums that are eligible for Grammys. In its latest guidelines, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Protocols,” The Recording Academy has stated that “only human creators” behind songs, not those generated by artificial intelligence (AI), can be considered, nominated, or win a Grammy Award.
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“A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category,” said the Recording Academy in their guidelines.
Though works that are completely AI-generated are ineligible for Grammy consideration or win, those that feature elements of AI are eligible, as long as the “human creator” has added some “meaningful” contribution to the music and/or lyrics, according to the Recording Academy.
“The human authorship component of the work submitted must be meaningful,” read the Academy guidelines.
Additional rules state that an artist must have contributed at least 20 percent of the work put into an album—including all credited artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers—to be considered for Album of the Year.
“We’re trying to find the sweet spot of how to make sure we honor the key music creators who have dedicated so much time and effort to making the Album Of The Year,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Is 20 percent the right number? Is 33 percent the right number? Is zero the right number? I don’t have the definite answer other than our committees voted at 20 percent, the Trustees approved 20 percent, and we’re going to go with 20 percent and see how that feels to our members and community.”
He added, “If it feels too exclusive, we can adjust and lower the percentage threshold. Or, if it feels like we have too many nominees and it’s not exclusive enough, then we can adjust again.”
The news comes as the music industry remains divided on its response to AI-generated music. While some within the industry oppose non-human-created works, others are embracing artificial intelligence. Paul McCartney recently revealed that he has used AI for a forthcoming Beatles release, which will extract John Lennon’s voice from a 1978 demo of a song called “Now and Then” and The Recording Academy will continue to monitor changes within the AI category and how it is impacting the creation of music in relation to eligibility around the Grammy Awards.
“Every process that we undertake, every amendment or change to our Awards process that gets initiated, is done to make the process more fair, transparent, and accurate,” added Mason Jr. “And when we find things that can be improved, we’re in the position now to be able to make those changes, thankfully. Everything you’re seeing now is with the goal of being better and more accurate, honoring more music fairly and in relevant fashion, and making sure the process is transparent, fair, and working.”
Photos: Courtesy of The Recording Academy
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