The 2008 50^th Annual Grammy Award nominations were announced today (see the Grammy Awards website), which mark another step and notch in the cap of many professional musicians and artists. The Grammy Awards show is scheduled for Sunday February 10, 8pm est/pst (CBS). The biggest winners of the nominations were Kanye West with 8 and Amy Winehouse with 6.

And yes, I choose the term “winners” of nominations purposefully, for when a musician or band receives a Grammy nomination, that nomination is a victory in itself – the artists win a certain amount of confirmation, acknowledgement, and prestige which will translate into increased success. For the next two months, the musicians can promote to the world that they, or their song, or their album, is “Grammy-nominated.” It is a marketing and personal branding coup for musicians.

“And next up, we have the Grammy award-nominated artist, Taylor Swift, performing for us her hit song…”  You see what I mean.

By virtue of being nominated, an artist is just about guaranteed to start making more money – in appearance fees, more album sales, increased royalty earnings from more airtime play and downloads of their music, etc. Being nominated for a Grammy is like hitting a mini-jackpot.

And thus, actually winning a Grammy Award is hitting the full jackpot. That musician will be able to carry the title of “Grammy Award-winning” for the rest of his or her career. This represents significant clout and amazing revenue earning potential for the artist or the band. I haven’t been able to find a study that outlines the equivalent future earnings dollar value of winning a Grammy Award, but I venture it is considerable. It is a personal business and branding victory on all counts.