Through the GRAMMYs®, the Recording Academy® recognizes excellence in the art and science of recording and works to ensure that music remains an indelible part of our culture. When the world’s biggest recording stars walk the red carpet at the 66th Grammy Awards, IBM will once again be there.

The business challenges facing the GRAMMYs this year are similar to those of other iconic cultural sports and entertainment events. Creating cultural impact in today’s highly fragmented media landscape means driving engaging content across multiple digital channels. When you have to celebrate the achievements and stories of more than 1,000 nominees across nearly 100 categories, it’s no easy task.

That’s why Recording Academy partnered with IBM to create a content supply chain that saves hundreds of hours of research, writing and production time while providing creative flexibility and easy review. This system, based on the generative capabilities of IBM watsonx, provides fascinating insights into the personal lives and achievements of popular GRAMMY Award-nominated artists.

Generative AI content engine based on trusted data

This year’s solution uses watsonx to leverage a powerful Large Language Model (LLM) hosted in the watsonx.ai component. The model is trained on the Recording Academy’s trusted and proprietary data, including artist bios and stories from the Grammy website and archives, along with brand guidelines.

The AI ​​Content Builder dashboard allows Recording Academy to use natural language prompts to generate rich content that can be published on the grammy.com website or used in social media posts.

Intelligently automate social asset creation

Leading up to the Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy needed to expand its social media reach to connect with fans and promote the event on awards night. But until now, content creation has been a very manual and laborious task. Solution: AI Stories with IBM Watsonx. The AI ​​Content Builder dashboard allows editorial teams to quickly and easily create rich assets to share in formats like Tik Tok videos, Instagram Stories, or Facebook Reels.

The AI ​​Stories interface allows editorial team members to select templates containing candidates or categories with different layouts and branding, using approved images from Recording Academy’s asset library. Next, choose which artists or award categories you would like to feature, post topics such as biographical information, Grammy achievements, or charity work, and which topics you would like to exclude from the output.

Then the real magic happens when the user clicks the “Create” button. AI Stories are created to feature summary text such as introductory text, headlines, bullet points, one-line summaries, questions, and calls to action. All of this output can be regenerated to generate alternative phrases and can be easily edited manually. Click “Publish” and your text will be rendered as a video asset, ready for download and subsequent publishing.

Enhancing real-time digital experiences

The GRAMMY Awards Show spectacle extends beyond network broadcasts. Additionally, fans around the world can watch the Premiere Ceremony (where winners of most categories are recognized), GRAMMY Live From The Red Carpet, behind-the-scenes backstage moments, stars arriving on ‘limousine cams’ and more.

This year, an “AI Story with IBM Watsonx” widget will appear below the live stream, providing informative text-based content related to the winning artists and categories. The editorial team generates these insights through the AI ​​Content Builder dashboard, using an interface similar to social asset creation. The widget’s default view includes a short headline and factual information, but fans can click to read more.

“In the past we’ve offered one or two insights per artist, but this year we’re enabling widgets to help fans dive deeper and read more about their favorite artists,” said Tyler Sidell, director of technical programs for IBM Sports and Entertainment Partnerships. “It is done,” he says.

The IBM Advantage: Expert Guidance and Implementation

Making the most of game-changing technologies like generative AI responsibly requires more than just plugging in some code. You need end-to-end expertise from planning to deployment. That’s why the Recording Academy has been working with IBM Consulting for seven years to launch technology initiatives using the IBM Garage Methodology. This human-centered, results-first approach is used to create, execute and operate workflows with clients. This process fosters the practices, skills, and expertise to accelerate digital transformation, foster innovation, and quickly transform ideas into business value.

Throughout the GRAMMY planning process, IBM Consulting collaborated with multiple stakeholders at the Recording Academy and met frequently with the information technology, marketing and digital teams. And on the big night, IBM will be on-site during the event as an extension of the editorial and production team.

The powerful combination of IBM Consulting, IBM Garage, IBM watsonx and Recording Academy digital teams delivers immersive digital experiences to more than 5 million music fans around the world.

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