Barbra Streisand Rushes Out Vinyl Version of "Release Me" to Make Grammy Deadline

PRNewsFoto/Columbia RecordsIf you're dying to hear Barbra Streisand's new disc of rarities, Release Me, you don't have to wait until it comes out October 9. You can go get it right now -- if you have a turntable.

Billboard reports that Barbra's album came out on vinyl this week -- not so much to please fans who love that medium, but to make a very important deadline. The cutoff for Grammy nominations is September 30, meaning only albums that hit stores before that date will be eligible for consideration this year. Grammy nominations will be announced December 5.

Of course, there's no guarantee that Barbra will receive a nomination, but since she's already won eight Grammys, she's a Recording Academy favorite. Release Me isn't new material, though; it's a collection of 11 previously-unreleased songs that span Streisand's career from 1963 to the present. It might be nominated for Best Historical Album as a result.

Babs isn't the only artist who pulled the vinyl trick this week: R&B singer Miguel, rockers The Wallflowers, jazz singer Diana Krall and British pop singer Cher Lloyd all released their forthcoming albums on vinyl for the same reason. The thinking is that these vinyl releases get the artists in under the wire, but their sales will be so minimal that when the "real" albums come out, it won't cannibalize those sales.