When Lisa Farris was first approached to join The Recording Academy in 2019 as its chief digital officer, the veteran digital executive and entrepreneur saw it as “an excellent way to give back and really represent the voice of creators,” she says. “Particularly in a time when it’s more difficult than ever for a creator to make money with all the different types of distribution formats available. I liked the focus on advocacy, and music education and all the incredible work that MusiCares does. And then yeah, we do this little Grammy show once a year. But it was really the other things we do 364 days a year at the Academy that drew me to the role.”
This Sunday (March 14), that “little Grammy show” returns to CBS for its most uniquely formatted production yet, with dozens of performances set to take place live from different parts of downtown L.A. around the ceremony’s longtime home of the Staples Center. Farris will be supporting the telecast in an expanded capacity, having recently been promoted to Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at the Recording Academy, succeeding previous CMO Evan Greene who left in 2019.
For her first Grammys as a marketer, Farris says the focus will be on the intimacy of this year’s event. “You’ll see some different segments about what’s happened in the past year, and really delving into what it is to be a creator. [Our host] Trevor Noah, we’re so incredibly excited to have him this year. We could all use a bit of humor and levity at this moment in time. He did a series of ads for us about how he’s excited to get out of the house, and how he’s gonna get to wear pants for the first time in a year.”
As with previous years, the Grammys don’t end – or even start – with Sunday’s prime-time broadcast on CBS. A whole week of virtual programming kicked off Monday (March 8) with “Women In The Mix,” a celebration of female creators and executives in music for International Women’s Day, and continues throughout the week with the Inaugural Black Music Collective Grammy Week Celebration, a Grammy U Masterclass with singer/songwriter Tayla Parx (presented by longtime Grammys sponsor Mastercard), the 20th anniversary celebration of the Grammys’ Producers & Engineers Wing, a “Live Countdown to the Grammy Awards” event and concert presented by Pandora, the 23rd Annual Entertainment Law Initiative and a revamped version of MusiCares’ annual Person of the Year tribute, which this year will be a fundraiser called “Music On A Mission.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Farris from her home in Los Angeles to learn more about the Recording Academy’s year-round role in a severely challenged time for live music, what else to expect from Sunday’s Grammys (“This isn’t a Zoom show”) and the response to The Weeknd and others’ call for more transparency into the awards’ voting process. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Brand Innovators: Nothing is the same for the music industry as it was a year ago, with thousands of musicians and industry professionals still out of work until touring is able to resume at scale. What are some pivots you and the Recording Academy put in place to provide relief and support for your community?
Lisa Farris: At the start of last March, which was Music Education Month, we launched this great campaign where we had artists sharing photos of their teachers — whether it was a public school teacher or a private music teacher — who helped them get where they are. We started this amazing tribute to the people who stood behind these people by literally holding up photos of them and sharing the experience. Well, that was March 2 that we launched that, and on March 13 we all went home.
And within four days we ramped up the MusiCares’ COVID-19 relief fund. And I worked 12-hour days easily, probably more, between March and June just making sure we were raising money, participating in enough events. The outpouring of creators who would come to us saying “I want to do a performance and I want all the proceeds to go to MusiCares” or donate merchandise or their time. Because there’s so many artists who found themselves right before festival season with nowhere to go, or stuck on a tour in Europe and having to come back, or just in a position where they needed emergency funds. We raised over $25 million, and it was a labor of love for everyone within the organization.
And then in the meantime, the CARES Act came around, so our advocacy team reached out and said, “We can’t support the entire music business through MusiCares, so what do we do? How do we make sure that creators – most of whom have never been able to collect unemployment in their lives – how do we make sure they’re incorporated into the CARES Act?” So with our advocacy team, we were able to do that, and then we had to explain to artists how you take advantage of that since, again, many of them had never filed for unemployment, business loans or any of the PPP that was available.
And then we slowly realized that COVID was going to be around for a bit longer than anyone had anticipated. I reached out to a colleague of ours who had been working on a study around AI that we had done over at Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. And we thought, what an incredible time and opportunity this is to provide access to creators who don’t always see themselves as entrepreneurs. I felt so fortunate that I was able to be on the phone with so many companies from StageIt to Patreon to the guys at Bandzoogle, literally everyday as chief digital officer I was speaking to companies who were talking about how artists can make money.
From there, we created the series called “Pro Sessions” where we broke down all the different ways artists can make income. Because just going onstage and performing doesn’t necessarily pay the bills. So what we did with Pro Sessions was we invited companies with different business models to join us in a webinar, and they always had to bring an artist who was actually doing it and thriving and providing tips on how other artists could see themselves being successful with those tools.
Beyond relief efforts, what are some other ways the Recording Academy advocates for musicians throughout the year?
This fall, we launched the second year of “Behind the Record,” which was an initiative brought to us by some of our members. Two of our members were lamenting at [the] NAMM [Conference] in Nashville about how there’s so many talented musicians, producers and engineers on this album but how does anyone ever know these days? Music is probably one of the only categories that provides you even less information in this digital format than it does in its physical format, which is crazy.
Not everyone will win a Grammy in their lifetime, but we believe everyone should be recognized for the work they do — particularly those people who work behind the scenes. I think so many creators have become producers, engineers, songwriters because they knew about those people behind the scenes.
So is the goal of that having more artists draw attention to the teams of people that go into making a record, or is it lobbying the digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify and Apple Music to add those credits?
It’s really both of those. Part of it for a moment was turning the tables on the artists to say thank you to their teams, but the other thing we did add this year was a petition for the DSPs to start adding credits. Some of them are doing it in their own ways. You have Tidal who did it from day 1, and they’ve been incredible partners. And then you have Pandora, who actually launched their credit initiative on desktop on the first anniversary of Behind the Record. The others are taking a little bit longer and are doing it in their own way.
Someone asked me today, “What percentage of music audiences do you think actually care about credits?” I wish I had that data, because I don’t really know. We’re planning for this coming year already and the conversations are: how do we make it more meaningful and amplify it in a bigger way?
The Grammys will finally return on March 14 after a previously scheduled date of Jan. 31 was postponed due to COVID-19 complications. What can we expect from this year’s show?
It will be unlike any other, and I think one of the most exciting things is this isn’t a Zoom show. All of the artists will be providing their performances live in the L.A. Convention area. It’s still COVID, so backstage won’t be like it normally is, and we really do have to take the precautions. But I feel like it will likely be the first music show like no other that will have everyone performing live.
This year is a reminder that music unites us. It’s a celebration of live performance and excellence. And so it’s really about the messaging and letting people know that we’re returning to normal in some ways. I think everyone is looking forward to seeing live music again, and to experience live music again.
And the other piece is making sure we provide audiences with as many ways to watch the show as possible. So we’re working with CBS, who have been our long-term partners on this — they have CBS All Access and Paramount+ is launching. As we all know, cord-cutting has definitely affected television, so just making sure people have access will be important.
You mentioned the Grammys “won’t be a Zoom show.” Did you tune in to last week’s Golden Globes? Curious to hear what you think about how they pulled off a mix of in-person and Zoom moments, and how might the Grammys telecast differ from that?
Yes, the Golden Globes are my second favorite show of the year, after the Grammys. I thought the hosts were awesome. I can’t speak for them, but I’m sure it was difficult for them. What makes that show so incredibly fun is everyone sitting shoulder to shoulder at tables. Our show will not have a live audience either — in good conscience, none of the shows can right now because of COVID. But I give them so much credit for pulling that show off without an audience. We have performances, that’s part of the reason why people tune in, but doing a performance is very different than sitting everyone at a table and having them laugh at each other.
Award show ratings overall have declined in recent years, including the Grammys. How can digital help bridge some of the broadcast divide with audiences?
The simulcast model with CBS will help, and also throughout the day. We’re not just a red carpet and an awards show. We start the day at noon [PST] with the premiere ceremony, which is where 70-plus awards are bestowed to creators from classical to jazz to world music. We’ll have eight performers on that show, which is a digital-only show where people will tune into Grammy.com.
From that we go into Grammy Live, which is a partnership with IBM and Facebook this year. We’ll have some incredible retrospectives on the history of the Grammys, including The Beatles to Billie Eilish, and retrospectives on Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Grammy style. If the Oscars do fashion, then our red carpet is style because we have people who put on a tuxedo and a pair of Converse or who show up in extravagant headpieces, or Billie Eilish who I guess started the trend last year for masks. In fact I think one of our IBM Watson questions this year is “Is Billie Eilish the most forward-facing person in style?”
After that is the show, and then we have a great wrap-up show that will be on at 11:30 p.m. [EST] right after the Grammys are done that focuses on the big wins of the night, what was trending on social and we have a style correspondent to talk about everything that happened throughout the evening. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl, just for music.
The Weeknd and other artists have called for more transparency into the voting process from the Recording Academy. Can you share any progress you’ve made on that front, and where you’d like to see further improvement?
We recently shared the Blue Book on our process, which was always transparent but the Academy just never posted it on its website. This year we had 23,000 entries, so our voting members had their work cut out for them. It’s not a group of people in Santa Monica sitting there choosing this, so [it’s evolving] as more people vote, as more of our members engage in the voting process.
Transparency is something that is critical to the Academy and I know that Harvey [Mason Jr.] being our current chair has prioritized that in a way that I think will stay within the organization’s DNA. Unfortunately, sometimes creators will get upset when they’re not nominated. Our goal is to celebrate music excellence.
Andrew Hampp is an entertainment marketing consultant for Brand Innovators and the founder of consultancy 1803 LLC, based in Berkeley, California.
