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Could Streaming Music Sites Eventually Collect Grammys, Emmys, And Even Oscars?

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Digital properties have quickly worked their way from novelty products to serious award show contenders (and winners) in only a matter of a few years, which is an impressive jump that many brands and artists wish they could replicate. Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and even smaller online distributors and creators have started collecting trophies at the Emmys for various shows, and Netflix has even made an appearance of two at the Oscars. If the slightly more established business of on-demand video streaming can make waves on the award circuit, why not streaming music?

The Grammys are coming up next, and it won't be long until an album, song or video that launched on a streaming platform wind up a nominee. Many of the potential candidates are big titles and popular works that debuted on one streaming site or another. Drake’s Views, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Chance The Rapper’s Coloring Book and many other albums—and the singles launched from them—were all hugely popular, and they all debuted on streaming sites.

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Since some of the bigger streaming platforms have upped their offerings by including video, the possibilities for nominations at other award shows are almost endless. Apple Music purchased the exclusive rights to future episodes of James Corden’s incredibly popular Carpool Karaoke, which recently won an Emmy. If it was powerful enough to beat out competition from the likes of Beyoncé and Adele once, there is a good chance it could wind up a nominee once again.

Other, longer videos could also wind up in certain categories, just as Beyoncé’s Lemonade did this year. Queen Bey decided to debut the visual album on HBO, but if she decides to go this artistic route yet again, she could easily have kept it contained to Tidal, where it was solely available for some time, and still wind up an Emmy nominee. The idea of longer-form content winning out, be it from Lemonade, Frank Ocean’s new visual album or even Apple Music’s proprietary Taylor Swift tour documentary, isn’t out of the question. Depending on when and how they were technically released, they could be up for several different types of trophies.

Finally, while it’s certainly more of a stretch, an Academy Award is also a possibility for the exciting future of streaming music. It wouldn’t seem too out of the ordinary for a documentary with a music focus, such as a Nina Simone or Amy Winehouse biopic, to debut and be exclusive to a site like Spotify or Apple Music at some point, and to then go on to be nominated for an Oscar. Two films about those incredible musicians were up for the honor last year, and the poignant and beautifully-crafted Amy did win. Netflix-only docs have been nominated before, so eventually those choosing nominees and rewriting what's eligible will need to ask themselves what the difference is between a video-only streaming platform and a music-focused one working its way into the video world?

Now, because of the way nominations work, don’t expect representatives from a company like Tidal or Apple Music to actually get up on stage and accept a gold-plated gramophone or winged woman statuette. But if a piece of music that was exclusive to a streaming platform, they'll still get  bragging rights and prestige. 

As their popularity and influence has grown, a number of streaming music companies have gone from simply granting access to the content that people are looking for to actually sponsoring and creating it. Nabbing exclusives with musicians, greenlighting podcasts and video series, footing the bill for music videos and short films and potentially even full-length movies could all bring in nominations at any of these prestigious award shows.

With hundreds of millions of people around the world using streaming sites—100 million of which are paying customers at this point—anything is possible. Every platform is busy looking for ways to beat the others and stand out to potential customers, of which there are still many, and winning one of these highly-coveted awards could be just what’s needed to grasp the attention of the still non-streaming masses, as well as to further the goal of partnering with big-name musicians. Whether it's subscribers or pop stars, who wouldn't want to be connected to the popular company that keeps winning prizes?