The Recording Academy has revealed the key dates for this year’s Grammy season, as the awards ceremony itself will take place on Feb. 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, while the nominations will go live Nov. 7, 2025.
The Grammys also announced a few updates to its rules and categories for this year’s awards, with the full list of updates available in the Recording Academy’s rulebook. In the country category, there will be a new award for best traditional country album, and the current best country album category will be renamed to best contemporary country album.
In the general field, the Academy has changed a rule for the best new artist category so that artists who were previously featured on a record nominated for album of the year can still be nominated for best new artist if their contributions on the album were 20 percent or less.
In the packaging field, the Academy is introducing a new category for best album cover, while best recording package and best boxed or special limited edition package are being consolidated into one category. And in the classical category, the Academy said “composers and lyricists/librettists are now eligible for GRAMMY recognition alongside all other key creative personnel including artists, producers, and engineers on winning albums.”
Music released between Aug. 31, 2024 and Aug. 30, 2025 will be eligible for Grammy consideration for the 68th Grammy Awards. The online entry period will run from July 16 to Aug. 29, The Academy said. The first round of voting will run from Oct. 3 through Oct. 15, with nominations announced Nov. 7, and the final round of Grammy voting runs from Dec. 12 to Jan. 5, 2026.
“The Academy’s top priority is to represent the music people that we serve each year,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement. “That entails listening carefully to our members to make sure our rules and guidelines reflect today’s music and allow us to accurately recognize as many deserving creators as possible. As we kick off another exciting Grammy Season, we look forward to celebrating the amazing power of music and its ability to bring so many people together.”