“I think the industry is heading in that direction in starting to acknowledge the importance and highlight the value of what songwriters do.”
While non-performing songwriters themselves play a crucial role in the industry — there would be no hits if no one wrote them — they’re often overlooked both in and outside of the industry. Songwriters’ pay is often disproportionately low, and it’s common for big artists to take a songwriting credit on a track even if they didn’t write it, which cuts into a songwriter’s earnings. In recent years, groups likehave tried to end that longstanding issue.
“I think the industry is heading in that direction in starting to acknowledge the importance and highlight the value of what songwriters doMason says when asked how the music business can better champion songwriters. “I think making sure we’re acknowledging them properly, making sure we’re looking out for them for credits or remunerating them properly; all those things are headed in the right direction. And my hope is that through the Academy, we can help push that forward.
Beyond the new songwriter award, the Academy announced several other changes Thursday, including four other new award categories: Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Americana Music Performance, Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, and Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. The Academy also launched a new special merit award called the Best Song for Social Change, which will honor a song that contains lyrics pertaining to social issues.
The Academy also capped the amount of submissions Academy members can send in for consideration, presumably to discourage applicants from spamming their songs across too many Grammy categories.In This Article: