Harvey Mason Jr.: A.I.- Generated Songs Are Eligible for Grammys

The Recording Academy (The parent company responsible for the Grammy Awards) announced changes in relation to how music has been and is being created due to recent technology, specifically artificial intelligence (A.I.). To help understand how this latest change will affect “winners” of future Grammy Awards, Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr. spoke to The Associated Press to give clarification on the matter at hand.

After releasing a notification that “only human creators” would be given the music industry’s highest honor, The Recording Academy states that “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category.”

In an exclusive interview with the media outlet, Mason says, “Here’s the super easy, headline statement: AI, or music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period. What’s not going to happen is we are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion.”

A song can utilize the technology and it could realistically win in a songwriting category. Yet, it won’t be eligible in a performance category.

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

The Recording Academy has been involved in extensive research to make sure it is well-versed in artificial intelligence since it’s been the talk of the industry in recent times. Many artists in the music, television, and film industries have been speaking against it since it broaches people’s intellectual property. But, Mason has addressed that and stated that they have had discussions with the right entities to make proper decisions.

“I’ve met with the copyright office. We’ve talked about the future and what that looks like on a federal level and the legislative level,” Mason stated. He also remarked that the conversations surrounding artificial intelligence “really came to a head in the last six months.”

He does mention that he anticipates going forward that there will be songs that incorporate the technology and there is a possibility that some songs that use A.I. will vy for a nomination for some Grammy Awards.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.: A.I.- Generated Songs Are Eligible for Grammy Nominations