A Legacy Of Growing And Nurturing The Recording Academy®
Over the course of 17 years guiding the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow was instrumental in defining and executing a mission and strategic vision that has benefitted music makers of all stripes, from artists to producers, engineers, mixers, songwriters and more. Working closely with the Academy’s Board of Trustees, Chair, 12 Chapter Boards and Officers, as well as the Academy’s senior management team, Neil grew the average ratings of the Academy’s flagship GRAMMY Awards; launched the GRAMMY Museum; established an advocacy office in Washington, D.C.; led a successful Giving Campaign to ensure the long-term vibrancy of the Academy’s affiliated health and human services charity, MusiCares; and grew the Academy television footprint to include more than 20 successful specials, among other accomplishments.
GRAMMY AWARDS®
Under Portnow’s leadership, the annual GRAMMY Awards® telecast has enjoyed an upswing over the past decade. The average audience for the awards show from 2011-2017 is 28.18 million viewers, including the nearly 40 million viewers who watched the 2012 telecast, a higher average than the ’90s or ’00s. He also led negotiations with the Academy’s longstanding broadcast partner CBS, keeping the annual GRAMMY telecast on the network through 2021. He also expanded this partnership to include a series of new GRAMMY specials including the “GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends” broadcasts featured on PBS’ “Great Performances” series. Additionally, Portnow expanded the Academy’s international outreach as the annual GRAMMY Awards telecast is now seen in more than 190 countries. He also was instrumental in facilitating the annual Latin GRAMMY Awards move to Spanish-language network Univision, where the telecast has enjoyed great success and significant rating increases, and extending the partnership to include new Latin GRAMMY specials.
RECORDING
ACADEMY®
Accomplishments
Throughout his tenure, Neil’s notable accomplishments have enhanced the organization’s overall mission of improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Highlights include:
Creating a GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day as a companion to the esteemed GRAMMYs on the Hill Awards event, both of which represent the most significant and unified music industry presence in Washington, D.C.; establishing a strategic alliance with the Recording Artists’ Coalition, thereby combining the efforts of both the Academy and the Coalition to amplify artists’ rights on Capitol Hill; and co-founding and implementing the first-ever Music Policy Retreat, which continues to be a semiannual gathering that includes leadership representation from music industry organizations, resulting in new, unprecedented cooperation and collaboration between the various creative and business constituencies.
Leading the merger of the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation® into the newly expanded GRAMMY Museum, which offers the best of each organization’s initiatives in preservation, education, exhibitions, and public programming. The integrated organization is the leading educational institution dedicated to broadening the historical and cultural significance of music.
Leading the largest grassroots initiative for music in the nation; the Recording Academy’s District Advocate day. In 2017, for the first time in history, music creators from all 50 states met with congressional offices in their home districts to discuss legislative issues affecting the music industry, including performance rights, copyright reform, and the impact of digital services. As the only organization representing all music creators (no companies), the Recording Academy’s District Advocate day continues to bring music issues to the forefront of legislators’ minds. Taking place annually in nearly 300 congressional districts across the country, artists and industry professionals advocate for updates to music legislation on behalf of today’s creators, and more importantly, the next generation, to ensure they can make a living from their craft.
Launching MusiCares’ 20th Anniversary Giving Campaign and raising more than $12 million for MusiCares, further ensuring music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical, and personal need; and launching the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund in 2005 and Nashville Flood Relief fund in 2010—when Hurricane Katrina and floods devastated the lives of people in the Gulf Coast region and Nashville respectively—bringing necessary and immediate assistance and support to music people in need. In 2017, he orchestrated the establishment of a relief fund to support members of the music community affected by the recent devastation of the hurricanes in Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
Launching MusiCares’ 20th Anniversary Giving Campaign and raising more than $12 million for MusiCares, further ensuring music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical, and personal need; and launching the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund in 2005 and Nashville Flood Relief fund in 2010—when Hurricane Katrina and floods devastated the lives of people in the Gulf Coast region and Nashville respectively—bringing necessary and immediate assistance and support to music people in need. In 2017, he orchestrated the establishment of a relief fund to support members of the music community affected by the recent devastation of the hurricanes in Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
Spearheading efforts to open the GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live in Dec. 2008, in partnership with AEG. The one-of-a-kind cutting-edge Museum—which features interactive, permanent, and traveling exhibits with four floors of dynamic and engaging multimedia presentations—continues to experience great success within the music industry and with music fans from around the world. In 2016, the Museum opened the first official GRAMMY Museum outside of Los Angeles—GRAMMY Museum Mississippi—located in Cleveland, Miss.; followed by the GRAMMY Museum Gallery at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. in 2016; and the GRAMMY Museum Experience Prudential Center in Newark, N.J in 2017.