Let's be clear about something, here: while we have a personal stake in the Emmys (though, for some reason, we've never been nominated) and the Oscars always make our hearts go pitter-pat, we here at the AtAT compound have about as much interest in the Grammy Awards as we do in, say, eating road tar with a spoon. It's not that we don't like music, mind you; in fact, we love music. But the music we love is unlikely ever to be honored by the Grammys, as it's generally been made either by establishment-bucking independent artists or people long dead (or, indeed, long-dead establishment-bucking independent artists, who really don't stand a chance). There are exceptions, of course; Anya tacitly approves Dan Zanes's House Party having been nominated for Best Musical Album for Children. But other than the kiddie stuff, musically speaking, we're about as far removed from Grammyville as one can get without sending one's ears to Neptune.

We're also appalled by the sheer unapologetic excess of any awards ceremony with 107 awards categories. Seriously, come on. How long do these things run, anyway? Do vibrant young stars drop dead of old age as the ceremony wears on?

Well, okay, we admit it: having 107 categories is so absurd that it's actually the only marginally cool thing about the whole Grammy routine-- but is it any wonder that voting members of the Recording Academy need a little help listening to all the nominated recordings? Luckily, it's the iTunes Music Store to the rescue! According to a MacMinute article pointed out by faithful viewer frozen tundra, the Grammy organizers are reportedly cooking up some scheme by which instead of visiting a chapter office in person to listen to all the tracks, members can just connect to the iTMS, enter some sort of identifying code or something, and listen to nominated songs for free. Sure beats a trip across town-- unless you're still on a dialup connection, in which case downloading all those songs would probably be only marginally better than a root canal done with a staple remover and a corkscrew dipped in rock salt.

Oh, but wait-- apparently even the wired voters are going to have to make that crosstown trip after all, because the Academy "will initially test the scheme with one as yet unchosen award category, likely a major one such as 'New Artist,' 'Album of the Year,' 'Record of the Year' or 'Song of the Year.'" (What, no "Best Polka Album"? We were holding out for "Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical," ourselves.) When you think about it, it's a little odd that the Academy would test the free-through-iTunes system with a major category, since the odds are pretty good that its members have already heard any songs nominated for, say, "Record of the Year." Wouldn't they need more help rounding up the songs for "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media"?

Then again, judging by some of the Grammy winners in the past, the Academy makes a lot of questionable decisions. Starland Vocal Band, Best New Artist of 1976? Yeee-ikes. But at least it picked iTunes as its partner in this strategy, so maybe this heralds a new Age of Decent Judgment. We're not counting on it, though.