The Recording Academy is taking the end of its deal with CBS as an opportunity to do a reset.
February’s 68th annual Grammy Awards wound down a 10-year deal between the Academy and the network to broadcast the annual awards show and affiliated specials.
Starting in 2027, a new 10-year global deal brings the Grammy ceremony to ABC, Hulu and Disney+, Billboard can exclusively reveal. The Academy will also produce a number of Grammy-branded music specials and programming across Disney platforms.
“The Disney opportunity was an exciting threshold — or tipping point almost — for us as an Academy, because it is going to make us look at everything we’re doing. How can we do everything we’re doing and evolve it and be better?” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. tells Billboard.
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Mason compares the situation to the reassessment that took place when he took over as CEO five years ago. “We’re using this moment as a chance to make sure that the academy and the Grammy organization is structured to best serve music people and to continue to grow our services and our programs.”
To help facilitate these changes, the Academy has appointed its first chief strategy officer, naming former Yellowbrick founder Ankit Dhir to the position last fall. Additionally, Branden Chapman has been promoted to chief global entertainment officer from chief operation officer and Sean Smith has been upped to chief communications and marketing officer from executive vice president. “[We’re] trying to evolve what we’re doing as an organization and bringing the most talent to our leadership team as possible,” Mason says.
Chief among the expansion plans is to grow the organization internationally to reflect the increasingly global nature of music. This effort is already underway and included inviting the 3,800 Latin Recording Academy voters to vote for the Grammy Awards last November, as well as the launch of Grammy House Giza, a multi-day event coming in October that will celebrate music creation. Grammy House events have taken place in Los Angeles and New York, but the Egypt celebration will be the first out of the U.S.
“Because music is becoming more and more global, I want to make sure our organization is positioned to reflect that and honor that,” Mason says, citing K-Pop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” win for best song written for visual media in February. Its triumph marked the first song from the K-pop genre to win a Grammy.
The global initiative also includes building membership in areas where music scenes are exploding, including Africa, Asia and the Middle East. “We’re going to continue to try and make sure that we’re honoring these not just from one part of the world, but from the entire world,” Mason says.
When asked if the Recording Academy would look at starting a new awards show that focused solely on international music or music from a specific region, such as Africa, Mason says, “I think it’s too early to talk specifically about that. I will say I’m working really closely with the Board of Trustees and our chair and our national leadership to make sure that we’re representing and serving music from all around the globe. What form that takes will evolve over the next few years.”
Another central pillar is a content-first strategy. The Academy produced up to three specials with CBS outside of the Grammys annually and the plan is to increase that number greatly and with a broader range of options, both within the Disney deal and beyond.
“My hope is that we can celebrate more music and more music storytellers, more genres, more things that are happening in music ecosystem because there’s more happening than a show or a special,” Mason says.
Chapman, who oversees production and event division, artist relations, production and business development and the digital media team, helms Grammy Studios, the Academy’s in-house studio which has existed for two years but will greatly ramp up production on several different platforms.
The Academy has more than 2.8 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, which streams such short form programming as Grammy Rewind and Road to Recognition.
While the Academy already mines the Grammys for short-form programming, Chapman plans to greatly expand its offerings. “Just taking a look at Grammy Week alone, we have 23 events that we do, most of which — aside from news coverage or red-carpet coverage — are private events,” he says. “We’re going to start taking a look at our entire event strategy, as well as launching new content and new events to expand our mission and our goal of serving music and its makers.”
Among the Grammy-week events he plans to find a streaming or broadcast home is the MusiCares Person of the Year event, which features top music names honoring a superstar. The last time the tribute aired was on Netflix in 2021 when Dolly Parton was honored.
“Person of the Year is absolutely one of the events that we see as a great opportunity to expand to a larger audience than just the invited guests,” Chapman says. “It is one of the opportunities we plan to take to Disney and expand into a traditional format.”
Additionally, the Disney partnership offers other expansive rights and opportunities. “What I’m most excited about is to really, for the first time ever, get into formats that we haven’t traditionally been in before such as potentially a prime-time series,” Chapman explains. “It’s things that we haven’t traditionally done because we’ve been very focused on specials…I see a huge opportunity to expand into traditional series, potential documentaries and feature films,” he adds.
Disney will have first pass on many of the offerings, and Chapman says content could even roll out through the new deal before the 2027 Grammy Awards, though he also adds there is one more unannounced Grammy Salute that will air on CBS in May, which is when the current deal will sunset. Both the specials, and especially the Grammy Awards, continue to provide a streaming and sales boost to many participating artists.
Reiterating Mason’s global perspective, Chapman says, “It’s not just that viewing has changed or that the technology has changed,” he continues. “It’s how we as an academy have shifted our mission and look at the marketplace as a worldwide marketplace, not just a U.S. marketplace.”
While Grammy Studios will take the lead on all its live events and will staff up accordingly, Chapman stresses that they will continue to work with many of its outside production partners such as Ben Winston’s Fulwell Entertainment and Jose´Tillan, who co-produced the Grammy Salute to Latin Music.
As the expansion into these areas occurs, there may also be a contraction of offerings that no longer serve the membership.
“We will be probably pulling back from some things because our industry has changed,” Mason says, though he declined to offer specifics. “What the music community needs has changed, how we generate value and revenue and programs and activations for different people has changed… We have limited resources, we’re going to have to choose the things that are working and enhance those. Things that aren’t working, we’ll probably pull back from.”
One area the Academy won’t retreat from is advocacy. Mason says that area will likely grow as music creators face hurdles from areas like AI. “We’ll probably do more because it’s becoming more and more challenging for our people to protect their works, to monetize their works, or remain in control with approvals. Advocacy is going to be an area where you’re going to see growth,” Mason enthuses.
With an eye to the future, Mason also expects expansion in the academy’s education efforts. “I think we will double down on education and how we’re bringing in the next group of music people, not just songwriting, but business and A&R. We have to foster the next round of people that are going to run and lead our business and our creative sector.”
