How Can I Vote for the Grammy Awards?

The broadcast of the Grammy Awards, music's biggest night, is just a couple weeks away, and fans are wondering how to vote for the Grammy Awards. With superstar acts like Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga among the major nominees, many fans would love to support their favorite artists by casting votes for them.

So how can you vote for the Grammy Awards? The short answer is: You can't, unless you've released an album at some point. Here's an explanation of who can vote for the Grammy Awards.

Who can vote for the Grammy Awards?

Unlike other fan-voted award shows like the American Music Awards, the Grammys are presented by the Recording Academy. Only Academy voters can vote for the awards.

According to grammy.com, voting members of the Academy are "professionals with creative or technical credits on six commercially released tracks (or their equivalent)."

This pretty much means that anyone who's ever released a record can vote for the Grammy Awards. Producers, mixers, arrangers, and other professionals are eligible as well.

The Academy offers two non-voting membership options. Associate memberships are offered to writers, record label executives, managers, merchants, and other individuals involved in the music industry. Student memberships are offered to college students seeking a career in the music industry.

However, those with associate and student memberships in the Recording Academy cannot vote for the Grammy Awards. The minimum yearly fee for joining the Recording academy is $100.

What if fans could vote for the Grammy Awards?

The Academy's exclusive membership has no doubt contributed to the award show's reputation for having a stuffy, less-than-edgy representation of popular music. The Grammys are criticized annually for not truly rewarding the year's best music. But the exclusive nature of the club also makes the Grammy the most prestigious award in the industry.

If fans could vote for the Grammy Awards, the results would certainly be different. The winners would more closely resemble the winners of the American Music Awards, which are entirely fan-voted. But the Grammy would probably lost some of its luster.

How can I vote for the Grammy Awards: Summary

Sorry, Lady Gaga fans, but you won't be able to cast a vote for "Poker Face." Taylor Swift supporters, you'll just have to hope the Academy likes "You Belong With Me" as much as you do.

Fans can continue to vote for the American Music Awards and some MTV Awards, but when it comes to the Grammys, all of us non-musicians can be nothing more than spectators.

Sources:

http://www2.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Member_Services/