Streaming-Only Music Now Eligible For Grammys Thanks To Chance The Rapper

The Recording Academy has made a huge change to their rulebook this week, now allowing streaming-only music to be eligible for Grammy awards, thanks to a push by artist Chance The Rapper.

As Business Insider reports, The Recording Academy outlined in a press release that music that exists on "paid subscription, full catalogue [and] on-demand streaming/limited download platforms" will now be up for Grammy awards. 

This would include records like Kanye West's recently released The Life Of Pablo (only available on Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal) as well as Chance The Rapper's newest, Colouring Book.

Chance pushed for the change via a Change.org petition to allow streaming-only albums to be considered for Grammy nomination, with Colouring Book the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200.

The petition garnered nearly 35,000 signatures, with the creator stating, "Artists like Chance the Rapper, who are now getting national recognition and performing on national platforms (just this past week Chance performed on the Jimmy Fallon show) are being punished for making their music available to everyone, rich or poor, by releasing their music for free."

Under these new guidelines, albums released on SoundCloud and free mixtapes are reportedly still not eligible for any Grammy awards.