Grammy 101
Ready For Grammy Season? We Can Help
View the Grammy Awards Journey, a resource about the complete Grammy Awards process, from Online Entry and Eligibility Screening to Peer Voting and Nominations. As the only peer-recognized music award, the Grammy is the music industry’s highest honor. We’re counting on you in the music community to continue that legacy by participating in the process. But we’re not leaving you to figure it out alone. Here, you’ll find important information about everything from online entry to the voting process itself. Hopefully, this helps.
69th Annual Grammy Awards (2027): Key Dates
Dates
Event
Aug. 31, 2025 — Aug. 28, 2026
Product Eligibility Period
June 25, 2026 — Aug. 14, 2026
Media Company Registration Period
July 7, 2026 — Aug. 21, 2026
Online Entry Period
Oct. 12, 2026 — Oct. 22, 2026
First Round Voting
Nov. 16, 2026
Nominees Announced for the 69th Annual Grammy Awards
Dec. 10, 2026 — Jan. 7, 2027
Final Round Voting
Feb. 7, 2027
69th Annual Grammy Awards
If you have forgotten your username to access your membership portal, contact the Recording Academy Membership Department at membership@grammy.com or 1.866.794.3391. You may also click here to use the Primary Email address on file to login.
If you have forgotten your password, click here.
It is possible that you are eligible to vote but your membership has expired. Should that be the case, a “Renew Now" button will appear on your Recording Academy member dashboard and if you attempt to take any actions from within the website, you will be redirected to the membership renewal page. You must renew to access the voter platform.
Vote solicitation guidelines are in place to help foster the integrity of the voting process and protect our members’ privacy. Should you have any questions or need additional information about the guidelines, email awards@grammy.com.
For the 69th Annual GRAMMY Awards, recordings must be released between August 31, 2025, and August 28, 2026.
To be eligible, recordings must be for sale commercially via general distribution or made available as a digital recording, either for sale or via a recognized streaming service. Outlined below is more detailed information on what qualifies as a digital recording and general distribution:
- General Distribution: Recordings must be released via general distribution, defined as the nationwide release of a recording via brick and mortar stores, third-party online retailers and/or applicable digital streaming services. Applicable streaming services are paid subscription, full catalogue, on-demand streaming/limited download platforms that have existed as such within the United States for at least one full year as of the submission deadline. All recordings entered must have an assigned International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) or UPC number.
- Digital Recordings: Recordings released nationwide via download or streaming service must have quality comparable to at least 16-bit 44.1 kHz. Submissions sent to the Academy for consideration must include the original file, proper label credits (producer, mixer, songwriter, etc.) in the metadata file, and a verifiable online release date.
Note: To be considered an album, recordings must contain at least five different tracks and a total playing time of 15 minutes or a total playing time of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. Recordings (albums/singles) must be available to the public as stand-alone purchases or audio-only streams (exceptions: opera and music video/film) by Aug. 28, 2026.
The Recording Academy accepts entries online from Professional and Voting Members, as well as registered media companies. Members are permitted to submit their own eligible recordings as well as the recordings of their peers for consideration.
Record labels, distribution companies and management firms MAY qualify as media companies. Media companies must apply for registration with the Recording Academy every year to submit/enter recordings. If your media company registration is confirmed, the Awards department will send the media company’s designated administrator detailed submission instructions.
Recordings for GRAMMY consideration can be submitted through the Online Entry Process (OEP).
If you are having trouble with your submission, you can contact the Awards Department. They are here to help.
Recording Academy members may submit recordings for consideration by logging into their member account. During the entry period an OEP button will appear on the member’s dashboard. Clicking this button will provide access to the online entry platform.
Our Awards team is here to assist you if you have any questions about your entries. Just email awards@grammy.com and one of our helpful team members will get right back to you.
For registered media companies and members of the Recording Academy, entries can only be made during the Online Entry period. For the 69th GRAMMY Awards, that period is July 7 through August 21, 2026.
All eligible recordings must be entered prior to the close of the Online Entry period – August 21, 2026, regardless of the public release date. Feel free to email the Awards team (awards@grammy.com) if you have any questions about your recordings.
Entries are recordings submitted for GRAMMY consideration. Entries that meet all eligibility requirements are included in the first ballot, which goes to the Recording Academy's Voting Members, who then vote for the entries they believe should receive a nomination.
The GRAMMY Award is voted on by the Recording Academy's voting membership, which is comprised of music creators, including artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers.
Tickets to Recording Academy events, including but not limited to the GRAMMY Awards, are for use by the account holder and his or her invited guest(s) only (to be accompanied by the account holder), are not transferable by the account holder or any of his or her invited guests, and my not be sold, otherwise transferred or used for any other purpose, including promotional, commercial advertising, or other trade purposes without the express written consent of the Recording Academy.
Tickets sold, otherwise transferred or used in violation of this Ticket Policy shall be deemed revoked and void, and their bearers deemed trespassers at (and subject to ejectment from) all Recording Academy events.
By accepting delivery of tickets, the account holder and his or her guests are bound by this Ticket Policy and the account holder agrees to inform with due diligence all of his or her invited guests of the terms of this Ticket Policy and obtain their consent to the same.
The Recording Academy reserves all legal rights and remedies with respect to any violation of this Ticket Policy.
There are currently 11 Genre Fields, 1 General Field and 100 distinct award categories across those fields.
The Record Of The Year category recognizes the artist’s performance as well as the overall contributions of the producer(s), recording engineer(s), and/or mixer(s), if other than the performing artist.
The Song Of The Year category recognizes the songwriter(s) who wrote and composed the song.
For more detailed information about specific category eligibility requirements, please contact the Awards Help Desk at 877-637-6816.
The awards process constantly evolves to reflect what’s happening in music. Each year, we receive proposals with suggested changes on everything from awards categories to rule revisions. We typically alert members of any category or rule changes in June.
The Recording Academy Awards department reviews each entry to confirm eligibility. Once eligibility has been confirmed, submissions are then sorted by genre-based sorting committees, who ensure that all recordings are listed in their proper category on the first-round ballot.
No, The Latin and Recording Academy’s Online Entry Processes are independent of each other, and have different submission dates. If your entry qualifies for both and you want to submit in both OEP processes, you will need to make separate entries, in the Latin Academy’s Online Entry period and again in the Recording Academy’s OEP process.
More than 150 experts across various musical fields meet to ensure that recordings are placed in their appropriate categories. These committees do not make artistic or technical judgments about the recordings, but merely ensure that each entry is placed in the proper category. From there, we arrive at the official first-round ballot.
Categories in which nominations are determined by specialized Craft Committees:
Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical
Album Cover
Album Notes
Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
Contemporary Classical Composition
Engineered Album, Classical
Engineered Album, Non-Classical
Historical Album
Immersive Audio Album
Instrumental Composition
Music Film
Music Video
Producer of the Year, Classical
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
Recording Package
On the first ballot, voters select the entries they believe should receive GRAMMY nominations. On the final ballot, voters select the entries they believe should receive GRAMMY Awards.
Note: In select Craft Categories, GRAMMY nominations are determined by Craft Committees comprised of specialized voting members actively working in those crafts.
Academy members or their designated publicists may promote their own releases through FYC e-mails, social media posts, and physical mailings. Lobbying on behalf of other members is prohibited. Click here to view the complete Voting and Solicitation guidelines for GRAMMY Awards voting.
Members need to login to their accounts to access the ballot.