What are the eligibility requirements? For the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards, albums must be released between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2016. Recordings must be commercially released in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product. Recordings must be available for sale from any date within the eligibility period through at least the date of the current year’s voting deadline (final ballot).
According to the Grammy website, in order for an album/project to be considered, it must be 'commercially released'. Straight away this disqualifies some of rap's best projects over the past few years such as Chance the Rapper's 'Acid Rap' and 'Colouring Book', Future's 'Beast Mode', Young Thug's 'Slime Season' 1-3 amongst many others.
Due to this, music fan's took it into their own hands to show how they think this is unfair by starting a petition to get artists who release free music a chance to earn some recognition through a GRAMMY nomination or win.
Since the petition went live it has since gotten over 30,800 signatures from music fans around the world. This petition gained so much attention from fans and the media, it as since been reported that the 'Grammys Would Consider Adding A Free Music Category'.
[http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/grammys-would-consider-adding-a-free-music-category-news.21680.html]
[http://www.ibtimes.com/recording-academy-says-it-would-consider-grammy-award-category-free-music-2366975]
If this goes ahead, this could encourage more and more artists to release free music, which could never be a bad thing. With the current state of music streaming and exclusives, some people can't afford to listen to their favourite artist's new album. For example; Kanye West tweeted when his album 'The Life of Pablo' came out that his album would never be for sale or available on Apple Music, prompting those who could afford it to sign up to Tidal, with the cheapest payment plan being £10 a month. For those who can't/couldn't afford it, they either came to the realisation that they would never be able to hear Kanye's album or they would have to illegally download it.
If there was to be a category for free music, this may encourage artists to put out more music for free, eradicating some of the issues to do with prices of albums and streaming services.
My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal.— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016
After a couple of months Kanye West did eventually release The Life of Pablo on Apple Music and Spotify, and it was for sale. He has since been sued by a fan for apparently tricking him into subscribing to Tidal and lying about it's exclusivity.
It should be noted that TLOP was pirated over half a million times on the day of its release. This is an issue I could definitely look into.
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