The 2024 Grammys are coming up on Feb. 4, but the Recording Academy is already looking ahead to the 2025 awards. The Academy announced today that the eligibility period for the 67th annual Grammy Awards will be Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024.
“This timeline gives us the time to thoroughly process all entries and uphold the integrity of the awards process,” the Academy’s awards team noted in an email to voting members. “It also improves the Online Entry Process [OEP] by aligning the end of the eligibility period with the end of our OEP period.”
You may recall that the Academy announced on March 1, 2023 that they were advancing the close of the eligibility year to Aug. 31 last year, but relented five weeks later amid criticism that this was insufficient notice for such a major change. Instead, they split the difference and advanced the close of the eligibility year to Sept. 15, 2023.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Academy’s CEO, announced that middle-ground compromise in a message to members on April 6, 2023, which shed light on the reasons the Academy is pushing for an earlier close: “A few weeks ago, we communicated a change to the eligibility period for the 66th Grammy Awards. This change benefits our awards process and grants us flexibility throughout Grammy season – specifically related to our nominations announcement timeline and the booking of the Grammy telecast, Premiere Ceremony, Recording Academy Honors Presented by the Black Music Collective, and other important celebrations throughout Grammy Week.
“After listening to concerns from some members of the music community, we have decided to amend the end date of the previously-announced eligibility period. The eligibility deadline for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards will be extended by two weeks, to Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.
“We care about the impact of this date change on our community and make this adjustment in the spirit of partnership and collaboration.”
The Academy made the announcement of the earlier closing nearly two months earlier this year than it did last year to give artists and their labels more time to plan around it.
The Grammy eligibility year extended from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 every year for decades – from the 20th annual Grammy Awards (which covered the period from Oct. 1, 1976, through Sept. 30, 1977) through the 51st annual Grammy Awards (Oct. 1, 2007, through Sept. 30, 2008).
The schedule has been more irregular since then. Here are the outliers:
52nd annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2008 through Aug. 31, 2009 (11 months)
53rd annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010 (13 months)
62nd annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2018 through Aug. 31, 2019 (11 months)
63rd annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2019 through Aug. 31, 2020 (12 months)
64th annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2021 (13 months)
66th annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2020 through Sept. 15, 2023 (11-1/2 months)
67th annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 (11-1/2 months)
