The International Bluegrass Music Association has been reminding their members this past few weeks that the deadline to submit your recorded music for consideration in the Grammy Awards is fast approaching on August 21. Anything released between August 31, 2025 and August 28, 2026 is eligible for consideration in the 2027 awards.
You don’t need to be an IBMA member or on a label to have your music submitted. You do, however, need to be a member of the Recording Academy, who administers the Grammy Awards, or a media company, record label, music distributor, or a management firm to submit. But most artists in and around bluegrass will know someone in one of these categories who can submit for you, or you can ask anyone who is a voting member to do it.
IBMA was deeply involved in the push to get the Recording Academy to create a bluegrass specific award in 1989, and the list of winners since that time reads like a greatest hits of the genre compilation, even more so when you list all the nominees as well.
But there have been years when the number of submission received for the Best Bluegrass Album category were small enough to give the Academy pause about continuing its inclusion.
You might think that your small, independent release wouldn’t stand a chance against the big guys on the big labels, and you might be right, but you’ll never know unless you submit. The more submissions received, the more the Grammy organization understands that bluegrass is a going concern, a serious art form, and a professional music format.
The fee to submit is only $75 for members or $95 for media companies if you get it in by tomorrow, and goes up to $125 for everyone if submitted during the final week, before the August 21 deadline.
Full details about submitting for the Grammys can be found online.
Just do it!
