The Recording Academy has designated a brand new standalone class for Greatest Album Cowl on the 2026 Grammys.
Alongside a number of essential dates and rule modifications for this 12 months’s 68th annual awards, the Academy introduced final week that it’s going to revive the standalone class for album artwork, and mix two preexisting classes, Greatest Recording Package deal and Greatest Boxed or Particular Restricted Version Package deal.
Designed to account for canopy design in addition to an album’s overarching visible presentation, Greatest Recording Package deal was established in 1994 because the third iteration of the Grammys’ unique Greatest Album Cowl award, whereas restricted editions and field units bought their very own class in 1995.
Now, as prolonged album rollouts, vinyl specials, multi-format releases, and guerrilla advertising and marketing dominate the business, these attributes will probably be judged underneath a singular Greatest Recording Package deal class, whereas Greatest Album Cowl will spin off by itself to honor cowl imagery solely.
The change comes after a rigorously orchestrated marketing campaign for Charli XCX’s Brat helped the album seize the 2025 Grammy for Greatest Recording Package deal, regardless of its album cowl’s famously minimal inventive composition.
Different Grammy modifications embrace a brand new class for Greatest Conventional Nation Album, with the earlier finest nation album class set to be renamed Greatest Modern Nation Album. Greatest New Artist has additionally expanded its scope to incorporate artists who had been featured on earlier album of the 12 months nominees, so long as they fall under 20% of the music on the album.
The 2026 Grammy Awards will probably be held on the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles on February 1. Nominations are set to be introduced on November 7. For extra data, go to grammy.com.
Featured picture courtesy: The Recording Academy.
