Statement from Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy Regarding the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards

"Today the producers of the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards requested an interim agreement from the WGA for the telecast on February 10. The Recording Academy remains hopeful that there will be a quick and positive response.

"The Academy is similarly pleased and gratified that AFTRA and AFM, the two unions that have long been the only ones with jurisdiction and representation of the musical talent on the show, stand alongside us in our efforts to present the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards at a level that millions of music fans around the world expect and deserve.

"This whole-hearted support recognizes the vital importance and meaning of the GRAMMY Awards and the critical work of The Recording Academy by the two unions that represent the great musical and creative talent within our industry. It also is an important validation of the solidarity of the music community behind both The Academy and the GRAMMY Awards.

"The Academy owns all rights to the GRAMMY Awards telecast but does not produce the show and is not a signatory with the WGA. We, however, fully support the offer of the producer, Cossette Productions, to immediately execute an interim agreement under the same terms as those arrangements signed by the WGA with David Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants (airing on the same network as the GRAMMY telecast) as well as other companies. Executing such an agreement would both allow the talented writers for the show to be compensated fairly for their valuable services and allow us to demonstrate support for the creative community of writers in a tangible and meaningful way.

"On January 8, 2008, I met with WGA President Patric Verrone to outline these and other facts. During that meeting, I explained that the music industry had for more than a decade been fighting to obtain fair and just compensation for the original digital content of its members and thus, of course, supported the WGA in its efforts to obtain like results for its own members. I outlined in great detail the scope, reach, and vital importance of GRAMMY Week and the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast not only to The Recording Academy, but to the worldwide music industry and creative community as a whole. I explained how those in the music and creative industry depend upon the annual proceeds from the GRAMMY Awards telecast to fund a whole variety of worthwhile programs such as our MusiCares Foundation, which literally saves lives and offers millions of dollars of aid to music people in need, our GRAMMY Foundation's programs to advance the importance and role of music and the arts in our schools and in society, and our efforts in Washington, D.C. to advocate for the rights and needs of our music community. In short, no awards show touches more lives of those in need than the GRAMMYs.

"We also want to underscore that the GRAMMY Awards telecast is now, and will always be, a union show. More than 700 proud union members work for months to create the music industry's gold standard of awards shows. That includes approximately 250 AFM members, 150 AFTRA members, and 2 WGA members.

"GRAMMY Week represents the most significant worldwide music event of the year. And we are in a different industry than the motion picture and television business; I am quite certain that most are aware of the extremely difficult and challenging conditions facing our industry's creators and companies, unparalleled in our history. This year, more than ever, GRAMMY Week and the milestone of a 50th GRAMMY Awards, along with the 50th Anniversary of the founding of The Recording Academy, are a centerpiece and beacon of hope, optimism, and represent literally multi-millions of dollars in sales, promotion, and marketing for our musicians and as such, take on far more significance than simply three and one-half hours of television programming.