Instagram to play up Grammys with exclusive photos and videos
Instagram has just the ticket for music fans this upcoming Grammy weekend.
Music business news outlet Billboard and Instagram are teaming up with the Grammys to blanket the social media sharing site with exclusive photos and videos starting Friday with the Billboard Power 100 event honoring top music executives. Exclusive Grammy content on Instagram will continue on into the parties held after Monday night's 58th Annual Grammy Awards on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.
During the Grammys, host LL Cool J, country star Luke Bryan and Grammy nominees Kehlani (Best Urban Contemporary Album for You Should Be Here) and Jack Ü (Best Dance Recording and Best Dance/Electronic Album) will be posting exclusive photos and videos. Other Grammy-related events that will be covered on Instagram include MusiCares 2016 Person of the Year Honoring Lionel Richie (Saturday) and the Recording Academy & Clive Davis Present the Pre-GRAMMY party (Sunday).
"We are opening up a whole level of content and experience that for the most part been closed for so long," said John Amato, co-president of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group.
Reporters from Billboard, as well as Grammys and Instagram staffers will help out, but the artists are "really adding a very interesting layer of input," Amato said. "They are places you are not able to be historically sitting on a couch in front of your televisions. Now you are going to be able to see all sides of that. It's like the big night from the perspective of LL Cool J."
Fans can follow @theGRAMMYs, @Billboard and Instagram’s official @music account to view all the snapshots and videos from the Grammy events. And the Instagram Grammys video channel, set to launch Monday, will live inside of the app’s Search & Explore tab -- features added to Instagram this summer.
Playing up music on Instagram makes sense, as more than half of the site's top 10 most-followed personal accounts belong to musicians -- specifically Taylor Swift (65.7 million), followed by Selena Gomez, Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj.
“Music events come to life on Instagram, with socially connected audiences and artists both turning to the platform for a collective visual experience,” said Lauren Wirtzer Seawood, who took over in November as head of music partnerships for Instagram after leaving previously heading digital efforts for Beyonce's Parkwood Entertainment company. “The level of expertise in the music industry that Billboard brings to the table will help spotlight these unique moments and conversations that make watching the Grammy Awards that much more rewarding.”
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