Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News. Joining us right now is a CEO of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Junior. Harvey, Great to see you again here. Obviously a lot of excitement given some of the nominees, who, of course, really stole a lot of the attention over the last year
or so. Before we get to that, though, Harvey, I do just want to kind of start off about the importance of the Grammy's not just as a television event, but also as a live event, specifically a live event in Los Angeles, one year removed from those devastating fires, and whether this is going to be sort of back to normal, if you will, this year, relative to what you put on last year.
I won't say back to normal, because I don't think any of these shows are normal. The size and scale and scope of the artists and the staging and all the things that happened to put the show together is always unique and exciting. Last year was extra challenging, but we've not been shortened challenges. We had COVID, we've had other issues. We've had fires, we've had rains. Will be different. It will be focused on the music and celebrating music.
I'm really proud about last year's show though, to be honest, we raised almost twenty five million dollars for music people who needed help and around the fires and their loss. That money has all been distributed show just a very small amount. So proud of what we were able to do last year. Excited about this year's show. It's going to be very different fun.
How important is are the Grammys to the artists themselves? I mean, I mean, obviously most of the people who win are you know, they're already wildly successful, which is usually why they won. But the artists sort of really get a big boost, you know, by carrying home those awards after the night's over.
Just a nomination, to be honest, can create a really large boost for them and their streaming numbers. For the touring numbers, We've done some different economic studies and the numbers range, so I won't say a figure, but the fact is the attention, the notice and the excitement around different artists is evident, and it's definitely extending their opportunity to do other performances, monetizer streaming. And it's not just the stars, to be honest, you'd mentioned all the famous
people you see Kendrick Lamar there. It's ninety five categories across multiple genres. We're honoring hundreds of people that are and it's subjective, but they're being deemed the best in their class for any given year. All those people classical, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, jazz. We have awards for all of them, and they're all receiving the awards. They're all getting the benefit of receiving the awards and getting the respect of their peers in
the community. And that's the difference. These are peer to peer voted awards.
Well, you know, you mentioned that there's a lot of newcomers, and certainly I want to get to those, but let's talk about some of those stars. Kendrick Lamar leading the nominations. I believe he has nine nominations in total. Lady Gaga also of course a household name here. So there's a lot of familiar faces when it comes to, you know, the leader board, when at least when it comes to the.
Nominations, definitely, and that's what makes it so exciting. You're seeing a lot of really great diversity in the general field category as you mentioned a couple of them, but with Pad Bunny and others. There's a wide range of different styles of music. You also have great fresh newcomers. We have some icons and some legends, today's superstars. That's a beautiful combination that's going to make for a great show.
And you know, you think about some of the newcomers here. Just going through the list, I see Addison Ray, their Kat's Eye Somber. I also see the Marias here. So when it comes to, you know, the best new Artists nominees, how does this field compare to maybe years past?
I think it's incredibly exciting. Again, you have different types of music and you have different types of artists. To me, that's going to be a spectacular thing to see on our show, and whoever wins this category will be so well deserving. But the other nominees I think are incredible stars going into the future.
You have a partnership obviously with CBS in paramount with regards to the broadcast and streaming of this. I am curious, Harvey as you look long term. I mean the Oscar has just struck a deal that I think was there twenty twenty nine or something. They're going to be permanently going through YouTube for the live broadcast. Do you see envision that most of the award shows are going to follow that same theme path.
Hard to predict. Everybody has their own journey, their own vision of what they think is best for their show. For us, we've just agreed to a new partnership with ABC Disney Disney Plus that will start after this show, so our very next show. I do think there's an opportunity to reach more people in different platforms, and everybody's going to be looking to do it in the way
that their audiences are looking to be served. We want to go to where music lovers and fans of music are consuming their content, and we'll continue to look at that where everyone else decides to go. It's hard to say, but we are going to be at ABC Disney for the next ten years, all right.
Harvey, really great to get some time with you. That is Harvey Mason Junior. He is the CEO of the Recording Academy