Is Martin Linberg on the Craft committee, did he vote for himself twice to get nominated? Were his immersive mixes that much better than other entries to the extent that that he would get two nominations? The other odd aspect of the nomination process is that the NARAS has not publicized nor otherwise revealed any of the Immersive Audio submissions except for the nominees.
Hi, jane23, and welcome to QQ.
The Academy isn't 100% transparent about the current membership on this Craft committee or any other Craft committee. For that matter, they're not totally transparent about every last aspect of the nominating or adjudication process, either. (For instance: does the Craft committee
really sort through all the submissions to arrive at the final list of nominees, or do they get an assist from flunkies who winnow things down according to some unpublished criteria?) But they're still pretty good, I think.
That said: sure, in theory there are opportunities for favoritism and self-dealing in this process. But even if the community of immersive mixing engineers is mainly a good-old-boys club, I can't imagine why they wouldn't try to be objective in their peer evaluations, or what possible incentive any of them would have to conspire for or against one another. (I haven't heard about any catfights within this community, and I've never heard any engineer dish on any other engineer, either; quite the contrary.) Anyway: it's not like a win in this category is going to translate into big money for anyone concerned.
Here's what we know about Craft committees. From the Academy's "
Voting Process" FAQ:
Special Nominating Committees
In Craft categories, final nominations are determined by committees comprised of voting members from all of The Academy's Chapter cities who are actively working the craft they are judging.
From a 2023
article in Billboard:
According to the Academy, all members of craft committees must be voting members of the Academy in the membership class which corresponds to the craft they are being submitted to judge. All must have filled out a documentation form listing six tracks or albums for which they have a credit corresponding to the craft they are being submitted to judge. The credits must be for recordings released in the previous five years.
Committee members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years. At least 25% of each committee must turn over from the previous year’s committee.
Committees Choose the Final Nominees Entirely on Their Own in These 6 Categories:
[...]
Category 83: Best Immersive Audio Album
Notes: According to the Academy, the committee for best immersive audio album has 20-25 members....
From the current
Rules and Guidelines (p. 18):
CRAFT NOMINATING COMMITTEE GUIDELINES
Craft Categories recognize excellence in highly specialized crafts. Craft Committee members must be Voting Members of the Academy in the membership class which corresponds to the Craft they are being submitted to judge. Each must fill out a Documentation Form listing six tracks or albums for which they have the nomination-eligible credit corresponding to the Craft they are beingsubmitted to judge. The credits must be for recordings released in the previous five years. The form remains on file at the National Office of the Recording Academy and is valid for five years.
Populating the Craft Committees. Each Chapter’s Executive Director works in concert with the Chapter Nominating or Executive Committee and Chapter President to develop a slate of recommendations. These recommendations can be supplemented, if necessary, by the CEO and National Chair in consultation with the head of Awards and the Craft Committee Chair(s) for DEI and balance considerations. The final slate is submitted to the National Board of Trustees for ratification. Furthermore, Craft Committee members are solicited for their recommendations of appropriate committee members, and no person would serve for more than five consecutive years without a break. If deemed necessary to the process, a committee member selected to chair may serve up to an additional three consecutive years.
1. Committee members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years, if they served on the committee first and were then elected to be chair. Two years off would still apply in these cases.
2. At least 25% of each committee must turn over from the previous year’s committee. Nominations in Craft Categories are determined by National, Regional or Chapter Craft Committees as described below.
As for who the current 20-25 members are: I haven't been able to find that info anywhere. We do know that
a couple of years ago, Michael Romanowski and George Massenburg were co-chairing a subcommittee of the
Producers & Engineers Wing tasked with "developing a [new] set of
technical guidelines for immersive audio." (The old set, written in 2004, is still online
here.) If that work is ever completed, perhaps it will be used as a point of reference in the judging process. At any rate: here's the current
Leadership of the P&E Wing, which has 6000-some members worldwide. Lots of familiar names on the current Steering Committee and Advisory Council; I would guess there's significant overlap between those two groups and the Immersive Craft committee.
And as for submissions: I don't think the Academy publishes a list of all submissions for
any category, so I don't see us ever getting a peek behind the curtain there.