Grammy Awards Issue a Bevy of Rule Changes & Updates for 2025—Here’s a Rundown

Photo Credit: Country Music Hall of Fame

The Recording Academy has shared some rule changes and updates for the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in 2025. Here’s a peek at the changes.Key updates include adjustments to eligibility criteria, category renaming, and the introduction of new guidelines for categories including Songwriter Of The Year, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album among others. These amendments were voted on and passed at the Recording Academy’s semiannual Board of Trustees meeting in May—all changes will be effective immediately for the 2025 Grammy Awards.

2025 Grammy Awards Eligibility, Criteria & Submission Guidelines AmendmentsAll eligible-credited Featured Artists with under 50% playtime will be awarded a Winners’ Certificate for all genre album categories, with the exception of the Best Musical Theater Album, the General Field, or Craft categories.

For Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical, the following submission guidelines were amended to allow for winder representation of the songwriter community. The minimum submission threshold in which a songwriter is credited as songwriter or co-writer has been reduced from five to four songs. The additional number of songs a songwriter may enter in which they are credited as primary or featured artist or another supporting role has increased from four to five.

The Best Traditional R&B Performance Category criteria was amended to more accurately represent the recordings that embody the classical elements of R&B/Soul music, distinguishing them from contemporary interpretations.

The Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Category criteria was amended to expand the category by broadening its scope and welcoming more entries from the Musical Theater community. Additionally, album eligibility criteria was updated to require albums in this category must contain more than 75% of newly recorded (previously unreleased) performances.

The Best Children’s Music Album Category criteria was amended to include a requirement that lyrics and English language translations must be included with entry submissions. Audience age range for this category was further defined as infant to 12-years-old.

Grammy Award Category Adjustments for 2025The Best Remixed Recording Category has moved from Production, Engineering, Composition & Arrangement Field into the Pop & Dance/Electronic Field.

The category formerly known as Best Pop Dance Recording has been renamed Best Dance Pop Recording.

The Best Dance/Electronic Music Album Category was renamed to Best Dance/Electronic Album and the category criteria was amended to establish that albums must be made up of at least 50% Dance/Electronic recordings to qualify.

Conjunto Music will now be recognized in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category, rather than the Best Música Mexicana Album category.

The Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media Category was amended to include a qualification for released material, specifically new downloaded content (DLC) and seasonal expansions. The updated qualification establishes that greater than 50% of the music on an eligible Video Game Soundtrack must be derived from new episodes or new programming released during the Grammy eligibility year for which it is entered.