The Grammy Awards, the music industry’s highest honor, have announced new rules to address the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in music creation. The new protocols, which were revealed in June 2023, state that a work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category of the awards. However, music that contains AI-created elements is eligible for entry and consideration for Grammy nomination, as long as there is a meaningful human contribution.
The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, has been grappling with the implications of AI in music for a while, as more artists and producers experiment with machine learning tools and algorithms to generate songs, lyrics, melodies, beats and even vocals. Some examples of AI-assisted music include David Guetta’s “Emin-AI-em”, the AI-compositions of TikTok user @ghostwriter977, and Grimes’ voice modeling AI software.
The Academy’s CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. explained the rationale behind the new AI guidelines in an interview with The Associated Press. “Here’s the super easy, headline statement: AI, or music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period. What’s not going to happen is we are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion,” he said.
He added that the human contribution must be more than minimal, and that the Academy does not want to see technology replace human creativity, but rather enhance it. “As long as the human is contributing in a more than de minimis amount, which to us means a meaningful way, they are and will always be considered for a nomination or a win. We don’t want to see technology replace human creativity. We want to make sure technology is enhancing, embellishing, or additive to human creativity. So that’s why we took this particular stand in this award cycle,” he said.
The eligibility of music with AI-created elements also depends on the category and the role of AI in the creation process. For example, if AI performs the lead vocal on a song, the track would be eligible in a songwriting category but not a performance category, because “what is performing is not human creation,” Mason explained. “Conversely, if a song was sung by an actual human in the studio, and they did all the performing, but AI wrote the lyric or the track, the song would not be eligible in a composition or a songwriting category.”
The Recording Academy has done extensive research and consultation on the topic of AI in music, as it has become more prevalent and popular in recent years. Mason said that he has met with the copyright office and held tech summits to discuss the future of AI and music on a federal and legislative level.
The new AI protocols are part of a series of changes that the Recording Academy announced for the forthcoming Grammy Awards to better reflect an evolving music industry. The changes also include new categories, eligibility requirements and voting procedures. The 65th annual Grammy Awards will take place on January 28, 2024 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Relevant articles:
– Grammys CEO on new AI guidelines: Music that contains AI-created elements is eligible. ‘Period.’, The Associated Press, July 4, 2023
– Here’s how AI-created songs can be eligible at the Grammys, Yahoo News, July 5, 2023
– Grammys CEO Clarifies AI-Created Music Is “Absolutely Eligible” For Nominations, Yahoo Entertainment, July 5, 2023
– Grammys CEO Confirms Eligibility Of Music With AI-Created Elements, Latin Times, July 5, 2023