The Recording Academy Releases 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards Show Inclusion Rider

Today the Recording Academy released its official GRAMMY Awards Inclusion Rider, a contract addendum designed to be a robust tool to ensure equity and inclusion at every level during the production of the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards, taking place on Jan. 31, 2022.

The Recording Academy originally announced the plan to incorporate an inclusion rider on Aug. 4, 2021, partnering with Color Of Change as part of the larger #ChangeMusic Initiative. Esteemed co-authors include Kalpana Kotagal (partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll), Fanshen Cox (production and development executive, Pearl Street Films) and key contributors Valeisha Butterfield Jones (Co-President, Recording Academy) and Allie-Ryan Butler (founding director, Warner Music | Blavatnik Center for Music Business at Howard University). The full Inclusion Rider can be viewed here.

The GRAMMYs is the first major music awards show production to publicly commit to using an inclusion rider, exemplifying the Academy's leadership and ingenuity in infusing the highest standards of inclusion, belonging and representation. Building on the diversity of the team who produced last year's show, the Academy hopes to help inspire peers to modernize hiring practices industry-wide and foster an environment of inclusion.

"I am proud that the Academy is leading the charge in releasing an Inclusion Rider for the music community that counters systematic bias," said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. "We were proud to work with a very diverse crew last year for the GRAMMY Awards, and this is the culmination of a years-long effort to create a rider for the production of the GRAMMYs. But this is only the beginning. We are commited to putting in the real work required to help create a pipeline of diverse talent and drastically change representation."

"With the Inclusion Rider, Color Of Change and the Recording Academy are working to change the rules that have enabled systemic discrimination in the music business for far too long," said Rashad Robinson, president of Color Of Change. "The Inclusion Rider is a concrete accountability mechanism aimed at breaking through an endless stream of empty commitments. It will ensure that Black people finally gain the authority in the industry that matches their essential contributions to it. An initiative of #ChangeMusic, the Inclusion Rider changes the rules of the industry's hiring and management practices to open up opportunities for work and promotion that have long been denied."

"The GRAMMY Awards Inclusion Rider includes the tool's four key elements which are essential to driving improvement in representation and equity: a commitment to deepening and diversifying hiring pools, benchmarks and targets for hiring, the collection and analysis of applicant and hiring data, and strict accountability measures," said civil rights attorney Kalpana Kotagal, Inclusion Rider co-author and partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. "By committing to use the Inclusion Rider for its 2022 production, the GRAMMY Awards is not only ensuring a more equitable and diverse hiring process, it is also setting an important standard for inclusivity and representation at award shows moving forward."

Originating in the film and television industries, the Inclusion Rider is a contract provision that sets forth a process for hiring and casting to expand and diversify the candidate pool, encourages hiring qualified cast and crew who have been traditionally underrepresented in productions, tracks progress, and creates accountability.