Grammy Awards Prove Relevance by Allowing Streaming-Exclusive Albums

“He said let’s do a good ass job with Chance three, I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the Grammy, Let’s make it so free and the bars so hard that there ain’t one gosh darn part you can’t tweet.” These prophetic words were spoken by none other than Chance the Rapper, Chicago’s next hip hop prodigy and rapidly rising star, on Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.”

Just a few months and millions of tweets later, Chance’s free mixtape Coloring Book was the first streaming-exclusive album to make it onto the Billboard charts with over 100 million streams. But will it be enough to snatch the Grammy? Thanks to a recent decision by the Grammys, it just may be. The Grammy Awards recently voted to allow free and streaming-exclusive albums to be eligible for nomination. While this is a change that Chance, among many others, see as long overdue, many musical traditionalists and purists are arguing against the dramatic change. However, while looking at today’s musical landscape, it becomes apparent that the Grammys made the right choice.

Arguably the most popular musical genre in 2016 is rap and hip hop. New and old artists alike such as Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and even Desiigner have been reaching the top of the charts. Along with being the most popular, hip hop could also be considered the most progressive genre in terms of marketing and distribution. The free mixtape has been an integral part of hip hop culture, with many popular rappers giving away their projects away for free download on websites such as Datpiff. Also, the popular website SoundCloud has given well-known and undiscovered rappers alike an opportunity to easily distribute their music to the masses.

Some of the most popular rappers currently taking the genre by storm, such as Young Thug, Future and Lil B, will release multiple free mixtapes a year to keep the attention spans of their loyal fans satisfied. Often times, some of these free mixtapes could be considered by many to be among the best hip hop albums of the year. For example, Chance the Rapper’s second mixtape, entitled Acid Rap, was universally acclaimed by critics and fans as one of the best albums, hip hop or not, of 2013. However, until the recent decision by the Grammys, an album had to be sold for a profit in order to be eligible to be recognized as such. Up until now, it was an utter travesty that a multitude of deserving artists were not receiving a chance at recognition, simply because they wanted to give away free music to their fans.

Outside of hip hop, the musical landscape across all genres has progressed dramatically in recent years with the emergence of streaming services. Between streaming giants Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, the vast majority of modern music listeners are subscribed to a streaming service. Because of this development, many artists have been recently choosing to release their projects exclusively to a streaming service. It has become quite common for artists to give exclusive streaming rights to Apple music for a large payout, rather than deal with disappointing physical album sales. Ultimately, it makes far more sense for the Grammy Awards to allow any music that is digested by fans to be eligible, rather than including the outdated caveat that physical albums need to be sold.

Despite how music has changed so greatly in front of our eyes, the argument can certainly be made for limiting eligibility to only physical albums. Arguably, albums that are exclusively digital limits its audience to the younger, more technically sound generations, thus excluding the older generations of critics and listeners from ingesting and judging it. This generational blind spot could mean that these digital-only albums aren’t receiving a fully comprehensive review of its quality. However, the responsibility lies more on the consumer than the distributor to stay on top of music trends. Most importantly, the Grammy Awards are making the right by staying relevant to the ever-changing landscape of music, instead of simply catering to older, out-of-touch generations.

While it’s possible that Chance the Rapper may not snatch the Grammy for Coloring Book in early 2017, the poster boy for free music will still be satisfied knowing that deserving artists will be eligible for the prestigious award in the upcoming years. In many ways, making music so easily accessible to the masses has led to more artistic integrity and greater diversity and range of quality. The Grammy awards have proven themselves to be relevant and with the times by allowing free and streaming-exclusive albums to be eligible for awards, and any consumers that are not caught up with the trends should certainly see this as a sign that it is time to accept streaming as the modern day method of music distribution.