Grammy CEO Emphasizes Eligibility of Music With AI-created Components

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy speaks during Grammys On The Hill: Advocacy Day in Washington on April 27, 2023. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

As the music industry continues to move forward in the face of rapid technological advances, the Recording Academy has asserted its stance when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence and its role in regard to artists winning the musical award.

That was established in a recent interview given to the Associated Press by Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr. speaking specifically about the rules behind winning a Grammy award and the boundaries for artificial intelligence.

“AI, or music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period,” Mr. Mason told AP. “What’s not going to happen is we are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion.”

Mr. Mason went on to explain “If an AI or voice modeling program performs the lead vocal on a song, the track would be eligible in a songwriting category, for example, but not a performance category, because “what is performing is not human creation.”

Conversely, Mr. Mason said that if a song was sung by a human being in a studio and they did all the performing, but AI wrote the actual lyric or track, the song would not be eligible in a composition or a songwriting category.

“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,” said Mr. Mason.

Greater Number of Songs Using AI Sparked Need for New Rules

The news comes in the wake of more and more new songs being created that incorporate AI technology.

In February of this year, the French DJ/producer David Guetta shared a video of him playing a song, which used AI to add the replicated voice of rapper Eminem. The technology has also been used by a TikTok user @ghostwriter977 in an AI-generated Drake song featuring The Weeknd called “Heart on My Sleeve.” That’s as Canadian electronic musician/artist Grimes in May debuted the open-source software program Elf.Tech, which makes it easy to add her voice to music for anyone who wants to.

The announcement also comes after Paul McCartney recently noted publicly that his new Beatles song was created with the assistance of AI. The technology was used to extract the voice of John Lennon from an old demo so it could be mixed into the new and final record.

“It gives you some, sort of, leeway. So, there’s a good side to it and then, a scary side. And, we’ll just have to see where that leads,” said McCartney at the time. Later he took to Twitter to clarify his comments after there was critical reaction to the effort.

“Nothing has been artificially created,” he posted. “Been great to see such an exciting response to our forthcoming Beatles project. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year.”

Recording Academy Instated Changes to Award Qualifications

All those developments led the Recording Academy to announce its series of modifications to the Grammy Awards to more accurately reflect the evolving music industry. The newly instituted guidelines included protocols involving technological advancements, specifically artificial intelligence. The law was laid down that “only human creators” could garner what’s considered the music industry’s highest honor.

It also added three new categories, which included best pop dance recording, best African music performance, and best alternative jazz album. Additionally, two existing categories have been moved to the general field meaning that all Grammy voters can now participate in selecting winners for producer of the year, non-classical, and song-writer of the year, non-classical. The latter was first introduced this year.

“These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to the feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres, and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape,” Mr. Mason said in a June statement. “By introducing these three new Categories, we are able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists. We are excited to honor and celebrate the creators and recordings in these Categories, while also exposing a wider range of music to fans worldwide.”

In terms of the process of changing the rules and establishing new AI guidelines, Mr. Mason said the organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals engaged in extensive research. He also said that technology summits were held and that he met with copyright experts and discussed the future of the industry and what that looks like on a federal and legislative level.

That’s as conversations about AI and how it will be used and controlled have really come to the forefront in the last six months.

“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,” said Mr. Mason.

The 2024 Grammy Awards will take place at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. The show will be telecast live on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.