Chart numbers and sales figures banned from future ‘For Your Consideration’ Grammys ads

Information including chart numbers, sales figures and number of streams will be banned from future ‘For Your Consideration’ (FYC) adverts seen by voters of the Grammy awards.

The Recording Academy, the body that hosts the annual music awards ceremony, announced the changes as part of an assumed bid to better favour artists on merit.

As Billboard reports, the Academy has updated its book of rules and guidelines which includes noted about the adverts.

The new rules, which will apply to the upcoming 64th Annual Grammy Awards in January 2022, state that FYC communications may not include “chart numbers, number of streams, sales figures, or RIAA awards”.

In a section titled Voter Code of Conduct, the guide states that “voters shall not allow their choices to be suggested, directed or influenced by anything other than their own analysis of merit, including, but not limited to: personal friendships, company loyalties, regional preferences, or sales volume/popularity”.

The news follows other changes made by the Academy for future ceremonies. The latest  rule changes particularly concern the Album of the Year category, which was won this year by Taylor Swift for her record ‘Folklore’.

From 2022, any producer, songwriter, engineer or featured artist on an album nominated for Album of the Year will also earn a nomination, even if they only worked on one song of the album in question. Previously, nominations were only awarded to personnel who were credited on 33 per cent or more of an album’s playing time.

That change, among others, follows on from an announcement in April that the organisation would be scrapping its Nominations Review Committee, which had attracted ample controversy in recent years.