If you're reading this, chances are you've decided to become a member of the Recording Academy. You are to be commended for this decision!

As part of the world's leading society of music people, you are in a unique position to make your voice heard — and effect change that not only manifests during the GRAMMYs show, but ripples throughout the music industry and world at large.

As such, becoming a member is merely the first step: it's time to use your platform to the fullest and get involved with the Academy's various divisions and initiatives. Below is a handy guide to the primary ways you can maximize your Recording Academy membership.

Fight For Music Creator's Rights

One of the most crucial divisions of the Recording Academy is Advocacy, which fights to protect the rights of music makers and advance their interests in the realms of /ocal, state and federal policy.

Additionally, Advocacy works to educate the public about key legislation and policy issues that affect everyone in the music community.

As an Academy member, you can get involved with Advocacy in a number of ways. One is by familiarizing yourself with GRAMMYs On The Hill, a two-day event consisting of the GRAMMYs on the Hill Awards and subsequent Advocacy Day.

Over the course of these events, music creators come together with Members of Congress to celebrate those who have been exceptional in their support of creator's rights and to advocate for the passage of legislation that will further improve those rights.

Read More: Everything You Need To Know About GRAMMYs On The Hill 2023: What It Is, Who It Benefits & What It Has Accomplished

Another important component of Advocacy is District Advocate, the largest grassroots advocacy movement for music and its makers.

This manifests every year in District Advocate Day, where Recording Academy members across the U.S. met virtually with their Senators and Congressional Representatives to fight for change for the music community.

Other facets of Advocacy to get acquainted with include the GRAMMY Fund For Music Creators and the quarterly advocacy newsletter and annual magazine. Furthermore, click here for a helpful landing page that features practical routes to support Advocacy initiatives.

Support The Next Generation of Music

The GRAMMY Museum's education initiatives aim to keep music in our schools and introduce music as a profession to young people.

Here are four ways they do this:

Education

The GRAMMY Museum's K-12 educational outreach and funding efforts ensure the future of music is only as strong as the next generation of creators. Last year alone, the Museum reached more than 700,000+ students through their free virtual education programming by way of GRAMMY Museum At Home and online streaming service, COLLECTION:live. 

Community Engagement

Their many public programs range from panels on the state of the music industry to intimate performances.

On-Site Exhibits

The Museum's Los Angeles location offers a variety of interactive and educational experiences that provide insights into artists who have shaped music history — as well as the creative process itself.

COLLECTION:live

Re:live Music Moments on COLLECTION:live, the official streaming service from the GRAMMY Museum featuring artist interviews, performances, and livestreams.

Support Music Makers

As a freshly minted member of the Recording Academy, you can help spread awareness of resources that aid all music makers in need.

Founded by the Recording Academy in 1989, MusiCares is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to supporting the health and welfare of the music community through preventative care, crisis relief and recovery support.

Here are just some of the ways MusiCares is here to support you and your peers in the music community:

Mental Health & Addiction Recovery Services

Support, referrals, and emergency financial assistance for counseling, psychiatric care, inpatient treatment, coaching, intensive outpatient care, group therapy, sober living and more.

Health Services

Financial assistance during medical crises and preventive services such as dental and medical screenings, hearing clinics, vocal health workshops, and assistance obtaining low-cost health insurance.

Human Services

MusiCares provides humanitarian disaster relief, and emergency financial assistance for basic living expenses like rent, utilities, car payments and insurance premiums. 

They can also assist with funeral costs, or instrument replacement/repair if stolen or damaged in a natural disaster — excluding wear and tear. 

The human services team also offers preventive programs addressing financial literacy, affordable housing, career development, legal issues, and senior services.

Support The Academy's Future & Evolution

As a member, you have the ability to make big moves at the Academy by:

• Recommending fellow music peers to become members

• Submitting projects for GRAMMY Awards consideration

• Proposing amendments to GRAMMY Awards rules

• Voting in the GRAMMY Awards process (if you're a voting member; key dates here)

• Getting involved in the Academy's DEI efforts

• Running for a Recording Academy board and/or participating on advisory committees

• Joining local chapters and voting in chapter elections

• Participating in members-only programs

• Supporting the Producers & Engineers (P&E) and Songwriters & Composers (S&C) wings

Additionally, you can become eligible to purchase GRAMMYs tickets and join the Latin Recording Academy as a dual member.

The Recording Academy is thrilled to have you as a member — whether you've already joined, or plan to join in the future! Watch this space for further news about Recording Academy membership and all other goings-on with the world's leading society of music people.

The Online Entry Process For The 2024 GRAMMYs Explained: How To Submit, Upcoming Deadlines & Webinars, GRAMMY Nominations & Voting Process, And More

On a sweltering Saturday evening in the thick of a Southern California heat wave, a crowd of about 100 gathered under the shade of the GRAMMY Museum's Ray Charles Terrace. This year’s GRAMMY Camp marked 20 years of the music industry program, which has been a significant influence on aspiring teen musicians nationwide.

The Open House event on July 20 capped off a week-long camp where attendees focused on one of seven music tracks, including business, audio engineering, electronic music production, music & media, and songwriting.

Campers donned aquamarine GRAMMY Camp t-shirts, while parents, guardians, and other family members filled the seats. Julie Mutnansky, Director of Education at GRAMMY Museum, was one of the first to take the stage. “This has been an insane week, so many things have happened in the last seven days. Special shoutout to the Village [Studios] for hosting GRAMMY Camp this year,” Mutnansky said, highlighting that everything about to be presented during the event was created in just the past week. 

The evening's MCs were GRAMMY campers Cora Reardon from New Jersey and Maya Ray from Los Angeles, both participants in the music business track. They shared their experiences of the jam-packed week, emphasizing the intense music immersion, the lifelong friendships formed, and the support from knowledgeable faculty, including Mike Garcia, who is in his 15th and final year of running the GRAMMY Camp business track.

While the Open House honored parents, mentors, and other supporters, the spotlight was firmly on the teenage GRAMMY campers, who took charge of the event. The business track campers  produced the event, wrote the script, and worked behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly. The production quality, featuring strobe lights and other effects, demonstrated the campers' commitment to excellence, living up to the GRAMMY name. The result was a spectacular show, filled with one awesome musical performance after another — all products of the past seven days, and a testament to the collaborative spirit of GRAMMY Camp. 

The band The Spicy Five kicked off the night with an acoustic rock track that got the crowd going. It quickly became clear that both the GRAMMY campers and many adults in the audience, eat, breathe, and live music. One husband was overheard whispering to his wife about how incredible the guitarists and other band members were too.

Read more: 5 Artists Who Graduated From GRAMMY Camp: Chappell Roan, Maren Morris, Blu DeTiger & More

Guitarist Lauren Hunter from Chicago performed, still buzzing from meeting guest artist panelist and former GRAMMY camper, Blue DeTyger earlier in the week. At the start of the camp, GRAMMY campers also heard from guest panelist Maren Morris, who shared her journey from GRAMMY Camp attendee to GRAMMY winner, offering valuable advice on making the most of the opportunity. 

Another highlight was Brooke Murgitroyd, a singer/songwriter from North Carolina who killed it on stage and also showcased her talent in the community by performing with pop musician Lizzy McAlpine on Santa Monica Pier. 

The event included brief interludes for campers focused on production to present their work from the past week. These campers gave mock pitches, demonstrating their readiness to secure their first industry gigs. 

Pittsburgh’s Aryana Booker-Gamez, part of the songwriting track, delivered two passionate performances, including “Look at Me Now,” which received a standing ovation. Offstage, Booker-Gamez enthusiastically supported her fellow campers, clapping and dancing along with the same fervor she brought to her performances.

It was clear that many campers formed lifelong friendships and potential future collaborations at GRAMMY Camp. Reflecting on the whirlwind week, Murgitroyd posted on social media: “Grammy Camp 2024 was such a dream!! To my 82 new friends, you are all so talented and taught me so much!” 

It's been decades since Maren Morris first attended GRAMMY Camp all the way back in 2005 — nearly 20 years ago. Still, she remembers precisely how she felt then and how much of a "rare opportunity" it was.

She met luminaries like Jimmy Jam and Paul Williams, and the setting made the then-15-year-old feel legitimized and creatively elevated. "I learned how to peer into myself and learn what unique thing I had to bring to the table musically," she tells the Recording Academy.

Since then, Maren Morris has had an entire career: She won a GRAMMY, received 17 GRAMMY nominations, joined the country music supergroup the Highwomen, topped the Billboard country charts, and much more.

Morris just had a full circle moment — Recording Academy style. On Monday, Morris returned to GRAMMY Camp, the GRAMMY Museum's signature music industry camp for U.S. high school students, as a guest artist to celebrate the program's 20th anniversary, which takes place in Los Angeles this week. She joins viral NYC bass phenom Blu DeTiger and captivating New Jersey singer/songwriter Jeremy Zucker. Together, they are guiding students on their paths to a career in the music industry. 

"I think that the main thing I'm imparting is that they don't need to rush their art or building their fan base," Morris says. "With social media and trending sounds and dances every day, it's easy to feel like you're getting lost or not keeping up fast enough with what your peers are doing.

"Just stick to being authentic," she continues, "and people see that, no matter what time they arrive to the party for you."

Another one of Morris' pieces of advice: Don't confuse loyalty with complacency. She explains that she likes to "shake up my production or co-writing comfort by working with new people who bring things out of me I wouldn't normally in a more comfortable creative situation."

In the end, "Find people that listen to you," Morris concludes, "but also push you and your creativity to new areas of yourself." There's no place better to do exactly that than at GRAMMY Camp, where the mentee can one day become the mentor and guide the next generation of artists and music industry professionals.

The 20th annual GRAMMY Camp celebration is running now and concludes with the GRAMMY Camp Finale Student Showcase on Saturday, July 20, at the Ray Charles Terrace at the GRAMMY Museum. 

Applications for GRAMMY Camp 2025 will be available online in September.

Learn more about GRAMMY Camp.

The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation announced four winners of its Latin Music Research and Preservation Grant program, awarding a total of $20,000 to their projects. 

This program provides grants to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, musicologists, and researchers around the world who are enhancing and preserving Latin music heritage. This year, an eclectic group of institutions and scholars will receive this support. With a maximum value of $5,000 each, the four grants support diverse initiatives. The Research Grants support projects that emphasize historical and anthropological research, in addition to documenting traditions and Latin folklore. Meanwhile, Preservation Grants fund the archiving and preservation of Latin music and its unique customs.

"Research and Preservation Grants play an important role in ensuring the legacy of Latin music and future creators, we are grateful to our donors for their generosity and commitment to advancing Latin music and its heritage," said Raquel "Rocky" Egusquiza, Executive Director of the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation. "Together, we are able to increase our impact and support additionally deserving projects in fulfillment of our mission."

A committee of experts from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, and the United States selected the recipients among numerous qualified candidates. Since its inception in 2015, the program has awarded more than $195,000 in grants to support projects, one of which received a Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY Award. 

Continue reading to learn more about this year's deserving recipient projects. 

Awarded Research Grants

Daniel Bustos-Echeverry, Colombia 

Cantos de la amazonía no-visible (Songs of the invisible Amazon) is a musical, ethnographic, and archival research project that seeks to highlight the value of the ceremonial songs, melodies, and verses of Siona women. 

The Siona are an indigenous Amazon community of fewer than 4,000 inhabitants that are at risk of physical and cultural disappearance. The research focuses on the analysis of the Siona’s ceremonial songs, verses, and melodies of Siona women, who have been displaced from leadership in yagé ceremonies. The results will be integrated and distributed in a macro-project within a Fulbright Amazonia research project that will promote the establishment of a path toward preservation of this knowledge. 

Dr. Katrin Lengwinat and Carmen Díaz, Venezuela 

Through the songs and narratives of Latin America’s diverse peoples, the project Nutrir el Futuro de la Música y Narraciones Latinoamericanas (Nourishing the Future of Latin American Music and Narratives) seeks to provide a future of social and emotional well-being, in which love, and a consciousness of cultural identity contribute to subjectivity and interaction. Through research, dynamic performances, recordings, and distributing a curated collection of songs for children and youth up to age 12, it seeks to nurture harmonious psychosocial development — while engaging with communities through workshops, concerts, and digital platforms — to reach a broad audience. 

Rapid technological development has brought about radical changes in all aspects of human life. In an era of rapid technological advancement, Dr. Katrin Lengwinat and Carmen Díaz see a concerning trend toward social isolation and disconnection from one’s cultural heritage. However, they view this as an opportunity to unveil a symbolic legacy that can enrich every individual's expressive and creative potential. Therefore, this project proposes to increase the visibility of artistic heritage, because it contains a cultural wealth that is not widely known among current generations. The exploration and synthesis of the musical and the literary contribute to the reconstruction of broken bonds in families, schools, and communities. Through the creation of alternatives, it is possible to promote increased closeness among people, emotional connectedness, and a unique identity. 

Awarded Preservation Grants

The Celia Cruz Foundation, United States

Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, made a profound mark on music. Her legacy resides not only in her iconic recordings and captivating performances but also in a vast archive of more than 200 hours of behind-the-scenes footage from her early collaborations with the Fania All-Stars and other notable figures. From the 1970s to the 2000s, these recordings offer a unique glimpse into her artistic journey and the vibrant musical scene of the time. 

With the project titled "Digitization of Celia Cruz Recordings, 1970s – Early 2000s," the foundation's mission is to digitize this valuable collection, preserving it for future generations and making it accessible worldwide to fans, historians, and researchers. The project will digitize and preserve approximately 150 to 200 hours of unedited footage of Celia Cruz, comprising 200 VHS tapes from the early 1970s to the 2000s. The preservation transfers will be digitized at the highest resolution possible for archival rate, therefore honoring the legacy of Celia Cruz and preserving her impact on music history.

Javier Soriano, Cuba-France

José Mauri Esteve’s compositions hold immense significance not only for Cuba but also for the broader socio-musical history of Hispanic American societies during the 19th and 20th centuries. Over time, the musical heritage of José Mauri Esteve has faced challenges, resulting in its significant deterioration, and hindering study and performance. 

In response, the restoration project named José Mauri Esteve: Rescate y Restauración de un Patrimonio Musical Hispanoamericano (Jose Mauri Esteve: Rescue and Restoration of a Hispanic American Musical Heritage) has been created to revive and preserve his invaluable contributions to music. This restoration journey includes various steps, including critical editions of Esteve's works, the careful reconstruction of lost or damaged musical material and in-depth analysis of his best-preserved compositions. Through this restoration journey, it plans to honor the legacy of José Mauri Esteve but also reaffirm the significance of his musical contributions to Cuba and the broader Hispanic American musical history. Through preservation and dissemination, it aspires to foster a deeper appreciation and understanding of his rich cultural heritage among audiences worldwide.

The Latin Recording Academy Announces the 25th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Return to Miami

The Latin Recording Academy presented its first Best New Artist Showcase of the year, featuring previous Best New Artist Latin GRAMMY winners Joaquina and Kany García, who is also a five-time Latin GRAMMY winner. The event took place at the Museo de Arte de San Juan in Puerto Rico on June 13.

At just 19, Joaquina has quickly become one of Latin pop’s most exciting rising stars and won the Latin GRAMMY for Best New Artist in 2023. Joaquina’s debut EP, Los Mejores Años — for which she received a second Latin GRAMMY nomination for Best Singer-Songwriter Album — demonstrated her special knack for capturing the nuances of teenage angst in a way that was equally catchy and poetic.

Winner of five Latin GRAMMYs — including one in the Best New Artist category in 2008 — Puerto Rican singer/songwriter Kany García has written and performed some of Latin pop's biggest hits, including "Hoy Ya Me Voy," "Alguien," "Duele Menos," and "Para Siempre." She often uses her voice to tell stories of women through her lyrics, and she was honored as a Leading Lady of Entertainment by The Latin Recording Academy in 2022.

"Taking the Best New Artist Showcase series to Puerto Rico for the first time, alongside Joaquina and Kany García, is an exciting opportunity to continue celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Latin GRAMMY Awards," said Manuel Abud, CEO, The Latin Recording Academy. "The support of our Presenting Partner Mastercard, and Official Sponsor Rums of Puerto Rico, enables us to continue delivering on our mission to foster the next generation of Latin music makers."

The Best New Artist Showcase series is the centerpiece of the partnership between Mastercard and The Latin Recording Academy. The concept kicked off in November 2022 during Latin GRAMMY Week, and showcases have since been held in Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Seville.

"At Mastercard, we understand that music is more than just a sound; it's a passion that unites us all. We are excited to partner with the Latin Recording Academy to continue to connect our cardholders with their passions and create unforgettable experiences for them and their families,” said Pablo Cuarón, Country Manager for Puerto Rico at Mastercard.

The next Best New Artist Showcase will take place later this year. Stay tuned here for more details coming soon.

Rums of Puerto Rico was an official sponsor of the Best New Artist Showcase for the first time and provided rum-inspired cocktails from their portfolio for all attendees.

See photos from the event below: