AI songs are not eligible for Grammy Awards
LOS ANGELES –
The Recording Academy is making several changes to the Grammy Awards, including a rule stating that “only human creators” can win the music industry’s highest honor in a decision aimed at the use of artificial intelligence in popular music.
“A work that does not contain human authorship does not qualify in any category,” they said under new “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Protocols” released Friday.
The rule was enacted following the academy’s semi-annual board of trustees last month, which ruled that work involving elements of AI is eligible as long as a human creator is responsible for a “meaningful” contribution to the music and/or lyrics. .
“The human authorship component of the submitted work must be meaningful,” in part, read the new requirements.
The news comes shortly after Paul McCartney announced on Tuesday that an upcoming “last Beatles record” had been composed using artificial intelligence by extracting John Lennon’s voice from an old demo. At the time, he described AI as “a little scary but exciting,” adding, “We’ll just have to see where that leads.”
In addition to the AI rule, the Recording Academy announced that changes were soon being made to other categories: Now, to win a nomination for the Album of the Year category, a music creator must complete at least 20 percent of the work. That includes all credited artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers, and differs from a decision made in 2021 that allowed anyone who worked on the album to receive a nomination.
The number of nominees in the “Big Four” categories – Best New Artists and Album, Song and Record of the Year – has been reduced from 10 to 8 nominees.
Previously, to be nominated for the “best musical film” category, 50 percent of the documentary footage had to be based on performances. The Recording Academy has lifted that requirement.
The change more closely reflects the evolution of the music doc format, often a collection of real and archival footage, such as Apple TV’s “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry.” Biopics and dramatic feature films are still not eligible.
Also Eligible: “Music-centric and individual music videos that combine to form a visual album (when videos are packaged and fed together as one cohesive film),” evidence of a trend spearheaded by Beyonce’s 2016 film “Lemonade,” and explored in different genres. as in Halsey’s 2021 “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.”
The Recording Academy also announced that the award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo has been renamed Best Jazz Performance, and Best Regional Mexican Music Album (including Tejano) has been renamed Best Musical Mexicana Album (including Tejano). To qualify for the latter category, 50 percent of the lyrics must be sung in Spanish, or the majority of the musical content must reflect a traditional style of Mexican music, such as banda, norteno, corridos, gruperos, mariachi, rancheros , sierreno, jarocho, huasteco and huapango.
Those changes follow the addition of three new categories, announced Tuesday: Best Pop Dance Recording, Best African Music Performance and Best Alternative Jazz Album.
