JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum Grammy Process

Your numbers are off, but you have the gist right.

Even though technology is available to make it possible, the Grammy's still do not require voters to listen to any (let alone ALL) of the eligible music in the round to pick winners. So it is solely a popularity contest. In the past labels all signed up their entire company staffs and then handed out the ballots on who to vote for, even in cases where their company had multiple nominees. I heard many stories of corruption and vote trading (one example was where two competing labels traded votes against their own artists so that each could secure the votes for the key artist category their promotional department most needed for business purposes. I had all the names, but don't feel like getting sued. I had multiple sources who were board members at NARAS (now GRAMMYS) who gave me quite an inside look behind the process. It is one reason I started our awards, to at least offer an awards where people had to hear the music before they could cast a vote that counted. If we have voters in our last round who just vote without listening to all the nominees, their vote is eliminated. And we have huge lists of nominees and categories. We give equal time and support to every category at our awards show which is why it's private and it lasts over 5 hours. But it's fair and honest and free run by volunteers so it's not bought or corrupted (though people have tried in many ways) and though I sometimes hate the choices the judges make (i.e. songs I love most rarely win) I am thrilled that the deserving winner wins based on who liked their music.

Brian