The boss of the company behind the Grammys has clarified the ceremony’s stance on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry.
Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Junior said: “AI, or music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period”.
It follows new guidelines, which said that AI-only work was banned, and that “only human creators are eligible” for a Grammy, the world’s most recognised music award.
The new rules also stated: “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category.”
The addition to the rulebook – which the Recording Academy said was made in a bid to better reflect the evolving music industry – sparked a multitude of headlines.
Music creators must also contribute to at least 20% of an album to earn a nomination. Previously, any producer, songwriter, engineer or featured artist on an album could earn a nomination for album of the year, even if the person only had a small input.
Mr Mason Jr said the Grammys, much like the music and performance industry as a whole, was still coming to terms with the new technology.
Further clarifying the Recording Academy’s stance, he said: “What’s not going to happen is we are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion [of a song].”
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An example of this in practice would be a track featuring an AI or voice modelling program performing the lead vocal – while it would be eligible in a song writing category, it would not be eligible in a performance category.
If a song was sung by a human in a studio, but the lyrics or track was written by AI, the song would not be eligible in a composition or a songwriting category.
Mr Mason Jr went on: “As long as the human is…
