How to Nominate Albums for Grammys

Have you ever wondered who casts the votes for the Grammys and how the votes are tallied? Have you ever loved an album so much that you wanted it to win a Grammy and it didn't even make the list of finalists? Having your say in the Grammy nominations isn't as far off as you may think it is. This article provides the steps that a person would take to nominate albums for the Grammys.

Instructions

1. Apply for a Recording Academy membership. There are three available membership types: student, associate and voting. Only voting members can nominate albums, so that's the membership you want.

2. You need to have "creative or technical credit on a minimum of six tracks (or their equivalent) in at least one voting discipline and the album must have been commercially released in the United States" to qualify as a voting member. Credits that are not worthy of a voting member include executive producer, assistant producer, A&R and production coordinators. (Grammys.com) You can supply album liner notes or proof of album distribution to verify album credit.

3. If you are going through the Recording Academy's new "digital qualification process," you have two options for applying: digital distribution and member endorsement.

4. For digital distribution, you need a combination of four credentials, according to Grammys.com: credits on at least 12 tracks; a promotional website (unless you are not a performer); an album that can be bought by the public at a major online retailer; and some other proof that you are working in the music business or working toward a career in the music business.

5. For member endorsement, you can become a voting members by being endorsed by two voting members using the forms supplied by the Recording Academy director of membership and marketing.

6. Once you are approved as a Recording Academy member, you must pay membership dues of $100 for one year, $180 for two years and $260 for three years. You can also choose to get an 18-month membership. These cost $150 and are available only in January, February and March.

Nominating Albums

1. Cast votes on the ballot sent to you by the Academy and submit it to the Deloitte accounting firm for tallying. The Academy requires you to cast votes in the musical field in which you specialize. For example, if you have credits in Country music, you will only vote for albums in that genre. You can cast votes for Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist, in a maximum of nine fields out of 31.

2. Cast votes again in the final voting stage. This time you will vote in the same four categories of Best New Artist and Record, Album and Song of the Year. You can vote in a maximum of eight of the 31 fields. The ballots are shipped again to Deloitte for a secret vote count.

3. Wait for the winners to be announced at the annual televised Grammy Awards ceremony.