GrammyAwards
[Photo by: The Recording Academy]

The Grammy Awards announce Album Of The Year changes, online voting for members

After announcing last month that they’d be moving back to New York City, the Grammys have revealed that they’ll be switching the way voting works, too.

They are transitioning to online voting and are updating the rules for its top category, Album Of The Year, as well, according to ABC.

Read more: The Grammys are moving back to New York City for the first time in 15 years

The Recording Academy will be adding songwriters to the nominees for Album Of The Year category, which was previously reserved for artists, producers and engineers, ABC explains.

This means all people involved in the album, including featured artists, songwriters and producers, can be added—so long as they are “credited with at least 33 percent or more playing time on the album to be eligible for nomination.” Prior to this, all participants on an album would earn a nomination, even if they only worked on one song.

The news site clarifies, though, that songwriters and producers who work on a big hit on an album could still earn a nomination for record or song of the year.

The Recording Academy will also be switching to online voting for its 13,000 members for the 2018 Grammy Awards, and voting takes place this fall for songs and albums released between Oct. 1 2016 and Sept. 30, 2017.

Senior Vice President of Awards, Bill Freimuth, tells ABC this will hopefully attract younger voters and touring musicians who are unable to vote during voting season.

“It is something that has been long-desired, long-talked about and long-investigated,” Freimuth said about online voting.

Earlier this year, they announced that they would be bringing the awards show back to New York City, the first time since 2003.

“It had always been something I had thought was of interest to us; it was really all about the details,” Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, told Billboard.

“We've been in L.A. for many years; we used to bounce back and forth from time to time. With the East Coast being the home for half the membership of the Academy — certainly there's a very vibrant, vital part of the music industry on the East Coast and in New York — and given that this is an anniversary year for us, it's a special chance to celebrate.”

What are your thought on the Grammy changes? Let us know in the comments below!

Watch more: Watch Nick Major chat with Sonny Moore, Blink-182, Katy Perry, Halsey, more on Grammys red carpet

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