Recording Academy Invites More Than 4,000 to Join its Ranks, its Largest Class of Invitees to Date
Categoria: Musica
It's part of a concerted push to expand and diversify its membership.
Por Billboard | 09/07/2026
The Recording Academy is issuing invitations to more than 4,000 music creators and industry pros to join its membership. The invitations are going out on Thursday (July 9). This is the third consecutive year that the Academy has invited 3,500 or more new members — and the largest class of invitees to date. It’s part of a concerted push to expand and diversify its membership. This year’s class includes more than 3,100 who are invited to join as voting members and more than 900 who are invited to join as non-voting Professional members. In terms of demographics, 50% are under 40, 43% are women and 55% are people of color. Related 2027 Grammy Changes: 5 New Categories, More Lenient Rules on Best New Artist Eligibility and More Eslabon Armado's 'NOCTURNO' Scores Double Top 10 Billboard Entries Nikki Glaser, RuPaul & More React to 2026 Primetime Emmy Nods To put these numbers in context, the Academy currently has nearly 15,000 voting members and over 3,700 professional members. (These totals do not include those invited this year. As the Academy points out, “Invitations must be formally accepted for invitees to become Grammy members.”) “Every year, we look forward to welcoming a new group of dedicated music creators and professionals through our membership invitations,” Grammys CEO Harvey Mason jr. said in a statement. “Our membership is the engine of the Grammys, and we’re excited for invitees to join our vibrant community, engage with their peers and help shape the future of the music industry.” (The Recording Academy has lately taken to calling Mason the “Grammys CEO.”) The Academy is announcing its invitations for its new member class about two weeks after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its own invited class of 529 artists and executives (down slightly from 534 individuals the year before). That means the Recording Academy invited more than seven times as many people to join its ranks this year compared to the Motion Picture Academy. The Motion Picture Academy’s peak year for invitations was 2018, when it invited 928 new members. In 2025 , the Recording Academy extended its annual membership invitations to nearly 3,600 music professionals. That total included about 2,600 who were invited to join as voting members and about 1,000 who were invited to join as professional members. In 2024 , over 3,900 people were invited (3,000+ to become voting members and 900+ to become professional members). In 2023 , the academy invited more than 3,650 new members (2,800+ to become voting members and 850+ to become professional members). In 2022 , it invited more than 2,600 new members (2,000+ new voting members and 600+ professional members). The Recording Academy introduced its new membership model in June 2019. Under that model, the academy invites large new member classes to join, in an effort to boost the numbers of women, people of color and people under 4