The official announcement from the Rock Hall Foundation of the 2007 nominees contains some interesting new information about the induction process.

The Rock Hall Museum's website has long listed the number of rock experts in the voting body at about 1000. However, according to this year's press release, that number has been cut in half to "over 500 voters." The voting body consists primarily of living Hall of Famers, which by rough count would be around 350, as long as each member of an inducted group receives a ballot (if not, the number would be closer to 130). The rest of the voters are made up of record company executives, rock critics, producers, broadcasters, and other industry professionals.

So what happened to the 500 former voters? If you are a former voter, let us know.

By nominating just nine artists for 2007, this marks the first time in the Rock Hall's 20 year history that it has nominated fewer than 13 artists. It's unstated whether or not this is a permanent change in the process, but it clearly gives even more influence to the Nominating Committee.

The press release also openly states that just five out of the nine nominees will be inducted. This is the first year they have announced a predetermined number of inductees before the voters get their ballots. As to how this effects the rule that nominees need a majority of 'yes' votes to be inducted is still vague. It's possible that voters are required to vote 'yes' for a minimum number of artists on the ballot, which would insure five artists would get above 50% of the vote.

(By the way, we would love to be a fly on the wall when the Sex Pistols receive their first ballot from the Hall of Fame this week.)