The 66th annual Grammy Awards, airing live from Los Angeles this Sunday, is getting fans excited to see their favorite artists hit the stage and potentially win a Grammy.
What’s new this year? The Recording Academy introduced three new Grammy categories and “only human creators” are eligible to win – just to name a few.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. joins Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger to discuss what’s to come on music’s biggest night. In addition to the Grammys, Mason Jr. gives his takes on AI shaking up the music industry, the push for artist compensation on streaming platforms, and the future of concert ticket reform.
“AI's going to present some really unique opportunities for our industry, but it's also a bit scary,” Mason Jr. said, adding that guidelines need to be put in place to ensure that “human creators are protected."
Video Transcript
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: The Grammys is the biggest, most high-profile event of the year for music. The 66th Annual Grammy Awards, set to air this Sunday, will hand out awards to music's brightest and most talented creators. 2024 is setting up to be a big year for music with the potential for AI to reshape how songs are produced, the push for artist compensation, and even the potential for ticket reform changing the experience for concert goers.
Here to preview music's biggest night is Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys every year. He himself is a veteran music producer, having worked with the likes of Michael Jackson to Aretha Franklin and Justin Timberlake, to name a few. Harvey, welcome back to Yahoo Finance. It's great to have you back on the program.
HARVEY MASON JR.: Hey, Jennifer. Thank you. It's good to be here. It's good to talk music and Grammys with you. Let's do it.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Yes, absolutely. The Recording Academy under your leadership has made a very big push for diversity and showcasing that diversity on the Grammy stage. Last year, Latin artist, Bad Bunny, opened the show and a first doing his song entirely in Spanish. What can we expect from music's biggest night this year?
HARVEY MASON JR.: Well, it's not just music biggest night, it's everything we're doing as an academy. That goes for our membership, our staff, our leadership, our board, and definitely the artists and creators that you'll see on our show. This year, you'll see a lot of different people from different genres, different ages. You'll see legends. You'll see new. You'll see a lot of different styles of music. And you'll see it coming from all different places. You're seeing more music from other parts of the world, so there'll be some cool surprises coming up in this year's show that, hopefully, you'll be excited about.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: One of the biggest opportunities and challenges for the music industry is artificial intelligence. On the pro side of it, how do you see AI further advancing and enhancing the music industry?
HARVEY MASON JR.: AI is going to present some really unique opportunities for our industry, but it's also a bit scary. So as much as I like to talk about what the possibilities are, I have to temper our excitement, because there are things that need to be worked out, there's guidelines that need to be put in place. Regulations, legislation needs to happen to make sure creators, human creators, are protected. But the possibilities are endless.
The productivity that comes along with using this technology, the ability to create things we haven't heard or thought of before is exciting. The idea of being able to extend the reach of an artist or a performer with their voice and their creativity is possible. There are so many opportunities to utilize AI and technology for growth of the industry and for our community.
But this is what we do, artists have always embraced technology. We're early adopters. We're going to continue to do that. But we have to make sure there are rules in place. People need to be credited properly. People need to be remunerated. And they need certain levels of approval for AI to even make sense on any level.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: You and I have talked a lot about fair artist compensation over the years and trying to get some of these streaming sites to offer a higher proportion of streaming profits to artists. How are talks going on that front at all? Do you expect the needle could be moved at all this year?
HARVEY MASON JR.: Every year, Jennifer, I hope the needle is going to move in our favor. We believe in the power of our streaming partners, the ability for us to get our music out to general public and for consumers, the idea of using streaming partners or streaming platforms and giving them the ability to access our music, so more fans can consume. It is exciting. It's always going to be exciting.
But we have to make sure that it is fair and equitable. I hope that those conversations continue. There are things that we are focused on.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Do you think AI presents an opportunity there for artists when it comes to compensation?
HARVEY MASON JR.: Yes, it does. But artists have to be able to license or agree to a license for their voice or for their music to be utilized by AI both on the learning side and the generative side. And then at that point there will be opportunity to potentially monetize new works if artists want to or if publishing companies want to or labels want to.
But for me, there needs to be consent, there needs to be an agreement in place. And we need to be given the choice, do we want to monetize AI, or do we not want to monetize AI? And that's going to be the question.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Last year, there was a major fiasco when it came to the sale of Taylor Swift's concert tickets. And it really exposed some of the pain points associated with Ticketmaster. On the back of that, we saw both the House and the Senate introduced two separate bills to try to deal with some of the issues we saw with Ticketmaster clamping down on some of the speculative tickets and requiring transparent price listing of fees. I'm curious whether you believe either of these bills could address those issues and speak to what some have called a monopolization by Ticketmaster over artists, consumers, and venues.
HARVEY MASON JR.: We all have to work in this ecosystem together. Ticket companies, venues, performers, promoters, it just has to be sorted out. So it's fair and it's equitable. And we don't want the consumer or the fans of music paying the ultimate price of high prices that could potentially exclude them from seeing their favorite artists. Whether or not the legislation gets completed this year or not, I don't know. I'm hopeful there's a lot of support, and there's a lot of justification for new legislation. It makes a ton of sense.
But again, it's a collective ecosystem. It one benefits the other. We want everyone to thrive. But we also want to make sure consumers are able to see their favorite artists.
JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Harvey, thank you so much, as always, for your insight. We are so looking forward to the 66th Annual Grammy Awards this Sunday.
HARVEY MASON JR.: And we're looking forward to putting it together and celebrating music and having you and everyone else hopefully enjoy a great night.
