Grammy Awards change rules to fit with music industry

NEW YORK Changes at the Grammy Awards include members voting in fewer categories at the 2017 show and songs released only on streaming services being in contention for nomination.

The Recording Academy announced changes Thursday that will affect the 2017 Grammys, to be presented Feb. 12 in Los Angeles.

Streaming-only recordings, released on paid-subscription platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, but not for sale on iTunes, will qualify for Grammy nominations.

“We noticed that there were a number of higher-profile artists who were choosing — for philosophical reasons as much as anything — to release their music through streaming-only, and we did not want to be exclusionary toward them,” Bill Freimuth, the academy’s senior vice-president of awards, said.

Some acts, including Prince and Beyoncé, have exclusively debuted music on Tidal. They later released the music on iTunes and other platforms. Chance the Rapper’s project, Coloring Book, was released exclusively on Apple Music and will have a chance to compete.

Other changes include the number of categories that Grammy members can vote in, reduced to 15 from 20, not including the top four categories — album of the year, song of the year, record of the year and best new artist — which all members are allowed to vote in.

They were approved last month at the board of trustees meeting.

Songs and albums released between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016 will be eligible for nomination at the 2017 Grammys.

Nominations will be announced Dec. 6.