{"id":906080,"date":"2026-07-01T19:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/906080\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T19:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:18:20","slug":"two-former-recording-academy-execs-help-steer-grammy-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/906080\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Former Recording Academy Execs Help Steer Grammy Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLisa Goich-Andreadis and Jeriel Johnson spent a combined 20 years at the Recording Academy. Now, they\u2019re using their knowledge of Grammy rules and their connections in the music community to try to boost clients\u2019 chances of receiving nominations and awards<\/a>. They started doing this work together in July 2024 and officially launched the Awards Agency LLC in March of this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey report that they had 32 clients leading up to the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, and that those clients received a combined 27 Grammy nominations and six wins.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth partners say that the transition from working for the Academy to working for their own awards consulting firm has required them to adjust their thinking. At the Academy, a core value is being scrupulously non-partisan. Now, by definition, they are taking sides.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe first year I was very uncomfortable doing it,\u201d Goich-Andreadis acknowledges, \u201cbecause I was [at the Academy] 13 years, 14 [awards] seasons, but now I\u2019m used to it, because we have a rhythm, our business plan is very solid and we really found our space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis oversaw the jazz and comedy genres when she was at the Academy, as well as the Special Merit Awards and the Grammy Hall of Fame. Johnson oversaw the hip-hop, R&B and reggae genres, was executive director for the Academy\u2019s Washington D.C. chapter and was a co-founder of the Black Music Collective.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth are based in Los Angeles. Johnson moved back to L.A. from Washington D.C. in 2022.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere have been Oscar consultants for decades, but it\u2019s relatively new to have consultants on Grammy campaigns, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: The film industry has been doing this for a long time. The movie studios really go all-in on some of their films. For music it\u2019s not quite the same, but it\u2019s becoming a thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: It\u2019s almost been an if-you-know-you-know thing in music. Companies do identify their priorities usually by early spring that they\u2019re going to want to focus on. They\u2019ll decide, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put a campaign behind this artist,\u201d and so we get to work with amazing teams at the labels, amazing management companies, who have great things going on for their artists, and then we just kind of plug in to what they already have going on.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen did you first have the idea to do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: After seven years at the Recording Academy, I left and went to a label, but while I was there, people just continued to call and say, \u201cHey, how does this work?\u201d or \u201cWhat is the deadline for this?\u201d or \u201cWho should I call?\u201d and I would find myself on the phone for an hour sometimes just giving away all this institutional and experiential knowledge from understanding the ecosystem of the organization. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt some point a friend says to me, \u201cHey, we had a marketing meeting at our company, and they mentioned they were going to hire some consultants to work on our Grammy campaigns for our artists, and it just dawned on me that you used to work at the Grammys<\/a>. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s something that you\u2019d consider doing, but I\u2019d love to talk to you about it.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat do they normally do for these things?\u201d And when he told me, I was like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s it? Well, they didn\u2019t think about this or that?\u201d And he was like, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll definitely hire you if you want to do it.\u201d So that\u2019s when it was like, \u201cOh, OK, it\u2019s a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFast forward that summer, I ran into a guy at a party, and I said \u201cI\u2019m going to start telling people I\u2019m a Grammy consultant,\u201d and so I told this guy, he\u2019s pretty high up at a label, and he was like, \u201cDude, you have to understand, every year we are trying to figure out how to campaign, and in the urban music space, in particular, I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s any consultants that are guiding the culture in the community through the Grammy Awards process who actually worked there and know how it works.\u201d And so he was like, \u201cLet\u2019s talk.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tI ended up calling Lisa and letting her know. We were close colleagues at the Grammys, we were two doors down from each other in the office, lived near each other, so we would carpool to work, we were friends, I called her to let her know I was doing Grammy consulting, she ended up calling me a few months later saying, \u201cHey, I have a manager who\u2019s looking for a Grammy consultant. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s something that you\u2019re doing still, but I\u2019d love to connect you.\u201d She connected the dots, and at the same time, she said, \u201cI\u2019m also going to be leaving the Grammys, and if I do, I\u2019d love to maybe come together, and we can maybe do this together.\u201d So that\u2019s kind of how it was born.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it a little strange for you to be on the other side of it when you were at the Academy for so long?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: I can answer that right off the bat, because the first year I was very uncomfortable doing it, because I was there 13 years, 14 seasons, but now I\u2019m used to it, because we have a rhythm, our business plan is very solid, and we really found our space.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: We have the utmost respect for the Grammys and the Recording Academy. When you work there, you really take it seriously in terms of protecting the integrity of the awards process. We talk about that all the time, so that\u2019s our approach. It\u2019s like, \u201cOK, Client A says they want to do X, Y, Z,\u201d We\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, that sounds great. However, these are the guidelines, these are the rules, these are the things you should stay away from, these are the things that we\u2019ve seen cause a flag, these are the things that we\u2019ve seen be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI did have a moment when I left where I wanted to try to disassociate because I had become \u201cJeriel from the Grammys,\u201d and while I appreciated the connectivity to such a prestigious and amazing organization, when you\u2019re in a role like that, it\u2019s very easy to become that, and so as I took my next step, I was looking for other things, and this just kept chasing me, man. People just kept calling, like, \u201cHey, man, can you, can you, can you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI imagine you checked in with the Academy to explain what you\u2019re doing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: I had a call with [Recording Academy CEO] Harvey [Mason jr.] and said, \u201cHey, this is this is what I\u2019m doing,\u201d and he was pretty cool about it: \u201cOK, sounds good.\u201d We do communicate with [Recording Academy] staff from time to time, because they\u2019re our friends. These are people we worked with for a long time, and we\u2019re a part of the community. We\u2019re also [non-voting] Recording Academy [professional] members, and as members who happen to be former employees, we\u2019re constantly cognizant of making sure that we are doing everything in accordance with Academy guidelines.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: I was going to go be a consultant, but when I started, it wasn\u2019t the Awards Agency, I had my own little company, and I was going to be helping musicians. My husband\u2019s a musician, and I see the needs that music industry people have, in general, and especially with the Grammy Awards. It\u2019s funny how many people don\u2019t even realize they can become Recording Academy members. So, I think what Jeriel and I do, we hook people up with the membership teams; we make sure that they know what an important thing it is to become a Recording Academy member, because it helps not only for people who want to vote, but also all of the activities that take place there, the chapter events and everything are a great way for the music community to come together.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think our knowledge and knowing the schedules and knowing the people involved, we reach out to the folks on the team all the time, like if we have questions about FYC or anything, we\u2019ve reached out to the legal team. I also think it helps the people that are still in the awards department, to take some of that off of their shoulders because people call constantly when you\u2019re in the awards department. \u201cWhat is this?\u201d \u201cCan I do this?\u201d \u201cCan I do that?\u201d We just help labels, we help guide people through all the rules, especially labels that don\u2019t have somebody on staff who works specifically for awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you see your role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: We are amplifying projects. We amplify music. If you\u2019re a member of the Academy and you are submitting music for Grammy consideration, the question becomes, How do you bring visibility to that project? How do you create a space to bring awareness and visibility to these projects that people have poured their lives into? The clients that we are fortunate to work with, they look to us to be sort of on-the-ground connectors around this music to music creators, music professionals, many of whom happen to be members of the Recording Academy. <\/p>\n

\n\tBecause we\u2019ve worked at the Academy, we have great relationships in the business. We\u2019re just fortunate to now be on the other side of it and still have friendships and relationships where folks look to us for knowledge, and I think we have found a way to support the community in this way. It\u2019s also gratifying, because it\u2019s a service that we provide that we know is helpful. It helps to demystify a very complicated and confusing process. Between the deadlines, the requirements, how to even get involved, there\u2019s a lot of questions. We\u2019re a marketing company that\u2019s trying to help folks get Grammy nominations and wins.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: I would like to add one thing here: We do not share anything proprietary. Anything that we help people with is already there. They turn out the Grammy [Rules & Guidelines handbook] every year. They turn out the Grammy FYC book every year. But I can tell you, my husband, the musician, he can barely get through a ballot on his own without help. For him to read through those rules, and for him to read through the FYC stuff [is challenging]. <\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the deal: I\u2019m a nerd, I knew the rules back and forth at that company, I absorb them, I know them, they\u2019re second-nature for us, and they\u2019re things that regular people don\u2019t know, so it\u2019s nothing that\u2019s proprietary, it\u2019s stuff that\u2019s out there, but for a lot of people it\u2019s daunting, they don\u2019t even want to go there, so they\u2019ll hold up something and say, \u201cIs this ad OK?\u201d and we have to say, \u201cOh no, you can\u2019t put the Grammy logo in there\u201d or \u201cYou can\u2019t say that you have 100,000 streams on Spotify, you need to take that out.\u201d So it\u2019s mostly stuff like that that people are just not aware of.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, a lot of what you do is in reading and interpreting that handbook.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: Once you\u2019ve absorbed and digested the rules themselves, then you have the bureaucracy of the organization and the layers of the organization and understanding how to navigate and how to move and how to be a part of it. For the purposes of what we do, that rule book is The Bible, and everything kind of flows from there. We read it a couple times a year, and we have to reference it when people bring up an idea that they want to do, and we\u2019re like, \u201cOK, yes,\u201d or \u201cNo\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s reach out to legal real quick, and let us get back to you, because we think it\u2019s a great idea, we just don\u2019t want to get dinged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: We often reach out to legal. Like it\u2019ll be something as simple as somebody will say, \u201cI\u2019m putting out an EP,\u201d and what we know right away is to say, \u201cHow many songs are on your EP? How many minutes is the EP?\u201d Nobody knows those rules that are surrounding those things like we would know, so we do a lot of help like that.<\/p>\n

\n\tI left in July of 2024. I was going to be consulting in some capacity, but like Jeriel, I had people calling me constantly, and my jazz people \u2013 they\u2019ve worked with me a long time, and they depend on you. They\u2019re people who call you constantly. They still call me. They\u2019re not our clients, but they\u2019ll call me, and they\u2019ll say, \u201cMy membership expired,\u201d and I\u2019ll say, \u201cWell, here\u2019s the email address.\u201d \u201cWell, I wrote to the email, and nobody answered me. Can you put me through to somebody?\u201d Sure. <\/p>\n

\n\tSo I\u2019ll connect them on email. No, they\u2019re not our clients, they\u2019re just people I\u2019m helping to get simple tasks done that we take for granted, but we literally know the people [to contact].<\/p>\n

\n\tDo potential clients ever inquire if you have the list of voting members?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: We get that question a lot, where a client will call us and say, \u201cSo do you guys have the list?\u201d and we\u2019re like \u201cNumber one, no, but number two, if you\u2019re found out to have the official Grammy list, and you are affiliated with a project that you know would benefit from someone who worked and had that Grammy list, you will be disqualified.\u201d We don\u2019t want to jeopardize our clients.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: Yeah, and also we want to say this, because this is something we always stress to our clients, from day to day, you don\u2019t know who\u2019s a voter. Somebody\u2019s membership could expire tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, or it\u2019s already expired. We don\u2019t know. And I think to put [clients] in front of just people in the music business is the important thing, because word-of-mouth travels. If you see an act at a club, and it\u2019s the most mind-blowing thing you\u2019ve ever seen, you\u2019re going to tell five of your friends who are probably also in the music business, and then they\u2019re going to post something on their socials.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, it is a word-of-mouth thing that absolutely does not just encompass voters. In fact, we like to say we just reach out to music people, people who love music, and even fans, sometimes, because fans will help amplify an artist moreso than anybody in the Grammy sphere could.<\/p>\n

\n\tWho usually hires you \u2013 the manager, the record company, the artist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: It\u2019s a mix. We have label clients, we have media companies, we also have independent artists, and then we have independent labels, and then we\u2019ll get a call from a management company.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: And sometimes a management company who wants to support their artists, but the label doesn\u2019t have any money to support them, like if it\u2019s a small label, and then the management company says our label isn\u2019t doing anything for promotion. What is it that you can do to help us? So we really are a marketing firm, above all, and just based on a really concierge sort of atmosphere that we\u2019ve cultivated here.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo people hire you for the year, for the award season, for a month?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: All of the above. As far as year-round clients, we have a handful, a smaller amount of folks will do that, but it\u2019s increasing. Last year working with one client in particular that started in January, and we worked that campaign from January 2025 up through the show, and it resulted in multiple nominations and wins.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe took a trip in January to New York, and we did a round of meetings with the labels to start talking about the upcoming awards year, and so again, in many of those conversations they were saying, \u201cHey, you know, give us a couple months, we\u2019re going to kind of see how the year pans out, identify our priorities, get our budgets in order,\u201d so I\u2019d say we start to kind of heat up by May. And then they start making Grammy announcements in June. <\/p>\n

\n\tEverybody wakes up about the Grammys, so we\u2019re pretty busy right now, but our busiest time is July, August, September. And then, October, you\u2019re at the finish line with the voting window Oct. 12-22, so that front end of October is feverish. We\u2019re getting people calling while voting is going on, saying, \u201cI know there\u2019s three days voting left. Is there anything you guys can do?\u201d And we\u2019re like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s so late.\u201d We encourage folks to start as early as possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: What we try to do is amplify the projects, not necessarily for Grammys, but just to amplify them in general, because the amplification in general is going to help for the Grammys. So, if we start amplifying something in February, it\u2019s not necessarily Grammy-related. Some people don\u2019t even have their albums finished by then, right? It might just be a single or something. So, we\u2019re working with the teams to say, \u201cHere\u2019s what you need to do.\u201d We\u2019ll consult on things like feature acts or producers and engineers.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you decide who to take on as a client?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: We want to build a company that has a reputation for excellence. Our slogan is \u201cWe Amplify Excellence.\u201d I think intentionally we try to pick and work with clients that we believe are contenders. We\u2019re competitive, we want to be the best Grammy consulting agency. We believe we\u2019re the best at what we do, because of our unique sort of positions, and so, in order to maintain that, we want to associate with projects that, you know, procure nominations and wins.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: And also things that excite us. We always tell clients the first minute we\u2019re on a phone call with them, we cannot promise a nomination or a win. We all know that. We make that clear. It\u2019s in our contract, it\u2019s in everything we say. That said, sometimes, and we have a couple projects this year, we don\u2019t know where they\u2019re going to go, but we know that when we\u2019re looking at these projects, these are amazing projects. So when we see excellence in something, it\u2019s not like, \u201cOh, this is a person who\u2019s won 12 Grammys already, so we know that they\u2019re going to win one,\u201d we\u2019re looking at it like, \u201cThis project is so amazing, we want the world to know about it. We want to be involved with it, and gosh darn it, we hope it gets a nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIs there anything you want to add?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson: We have been blessed to be able to fall into this as a career where we were fledgling at first, like, \u201cDo we?,\u201d \u201cHow do we?,\u201d \u201cWhat do we?\u201d \u201cShould we?\u201d And now people trust us, and they see us as an authority in this space, and we are honored by that.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoich-Andreadis: Yeah, and I can also add that we\u2019re passionate about what we do, and it\u2019s fun for us right now to be in this position to have a job where we can help to amplify the music that we love. You can\u2019t really do that when you\u2019re with the Academy. You can\u2019t promote things when you\u2019re there because that wouldn\u2019t be right. But it\u2019s nice to be passionate, and I can tell you, when we watched the show this year, it was Jeriel and me and another person that used to work at the Academy, just three of us watching the Grammys with a spreadsheet out of our clients and their nominations, and checking the boxes off as people would win or not win. It was pure passion that went into that moment.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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