Grammy Award Winners Cash In

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which is hosting the 56th Grammy Awards show on Jan. 26, is known for making terrible decisions. In 1966 its voting members thought the best rock ’n’ roll recording was the novelty song Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville Band, not the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby or the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations. Twenty years later they picked the charity singalong We Are the World for Record of the Year over Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. And in 2001 the rapper Sisqó was nominated for four awards for an album that included Thong Song.

But the show is good at one thing—selling music. “The Grammys are the biggest driver of sales increases,” says David Bakula, senior vice president of analytics at Nielsen Entertainment. “It introduces unknown artists to people who aren’t traditional record buyers, and it can even relaunch albums that have already sold millions.” Over the past 10 years, the Grammys, which has appeared on CBS since 1973, has averaged an audience of about 24 million, and the typical viewer is 42 years old. Musicians rarely have access to that many eyeballs, and the three-hour-plus broadcast packs in as many performances as possible, often pairing artists in ill-conceived duets, such as the time Elton John performed with Eminem, or when Taylor Swift went embarrassingly flat while singing Rhiannon with Stevie Nicks. The mash-up trend continues this year, with Stevie Wonder joining Daft Punk. Let’s hope Stevie won’t have to wear the helmet.