New Guidelines Announced for Best Musical Theater Album at the Grammys

Spread the word! The Grammy Awards has updated their guidelines for Best Musical Theater Album. The reason why is simple: the more albums that are submitted, the more nominees there are (up to 5).

Check out the updated guidelines below:

The Grammy Awards: Best Musical Theater Album

• The Best Musical Theater Album GRAMMY® honors excellence in the performance(s) in and production of musical theater recordings. Elements of the corresponding stage production are not considered in evaluating the recording.
• It's not just Broadway cast albums that are eligible. All recordings of scores of musical theater works created to support an underlying dramatic intention or theme can be considered. This includes recordings of Off-Broadway, Broadway, regional works, studio cast recordings, concept albums, "live," "in concert" television performances, and revivals.
• As with all GRAMMY categories, if 40 or more eligible albums are submitted, five albums are nominated.
Note: 25-39 submissions yield three nominated albums.
• Similar to other categories, there is a Screening Committee, consisting of highly qualified experts in the field, who help ensure that the submitted albums meet all eligibility requirements for the category.
Note: Screening Committees do not determine the nominated albums.
• And the GRAMMY for the Best Musical Theater Album goes to... the album producer(s), principal vocalist(s) who have contributed significant performance(s), and lyricist(s) and composer(s) of more than half of the new score.

INTERESTED IN RECORDING ACADEMY™ MEMBERSHIP?

• You may enter recordings if you are a Voting or Associate Member of the Recording Academy™ or an employee of a registered media company.
• You can apply to become a Voting Member of the Academy if you've written, performed on, engineered, or produced a musical theater album. Note: if you've contributed to six qualifying physical tracks, commercially released in the United States through physical distribution outlets, or 12 qualifying digital tracks (or equivalent duration of content). At least one track must have been released within five years of application.
• You can apply to become an Associate Member if the majority of your business activity is directly related to the recording of musical theater works.
• All applicants must provide career substantiation documentation.

IMPORTANT GRAMMY SUBMISSION NOTES AND DATES:

• Don't assume someone else has submitted the eligible recording.
• The more submissions the better for the category.

For more information about the GRAMMY Awards® process, please visit GRAMMY101.com.

For more information about membership, please visit RecordingAcademy.com.

Release Eligibility Period | Oct. 1, 2017- Sept. 30, 2018
First Online Entry Process Access Period | July 2-16, 2018
Second Online Entry Process Access Period | Aug. 8-22, 2018
Last Day To Become A Member To Vote | Sept. 15, 2018
First-Round Online Voting | Oct. 17-31, 2018
Final-Round Online Voting | Dec. 13, 2018-Jan. 9, 2019