The Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formerly the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. , or NARAS for short) is a private-law organization for the music industry founded in Los Angeles on May 28, 1957 and headquartered in Santa Monica , California (since 1993). Outside the USA in particular , the Recording Academy is best known as the institution that has been awarding one of the most internationally renowned music prizes , the Grammy Award , since 1959 . Their main concern is to improve the living and working conditions of those employed in the music industry, i.e. mainly musicians , sound engineers and producers, and to actively promote particularly high-quality work in these areas of activity.