YouTube announced the list of nominees for its very first Music Awards. The popular video platform shared its plans to organize an awards shows earlier this month.
YouTube users will have the full say on who wins and who does not. Viewers will have the chance to vote for their favourite nominees. The voting itself will be a bit unusual. Instead of checking in an empty box on a website, users will only need to share their top picks. YouTube will keep track of all the sharing activity of the nominees. Logically, the video that gets to be the most shared one will take the prize. So, fans, if you want your favourite video to win, start spamming up your social profiles and friends!
The first edition of the YouTube Music Awards will take place at Pier 36 in New York, on November 3. It will be hosted by entertainer Reggie Watts and actor Jason Schwartzman. Also, the show will be streamed live on YouTube.
YouTube will award videos in six different categories. They include Artist of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year, Video of the Year, YouTube Phenomenon of the Year, Innovation of the Year, as well as Response of the Year. As you can see, the categories are pretty standard for a music awards show. This could mean that YouTube is actually gearing up to compete with big music events like the American Music Awards and MTV’s Video Music Awards.
Most nominated are Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. They received three nominations – Video of the Year for “Same Love,” Artist of the Year, as well as Breakthrough. Rihanna, Justin Bieber, One Direction and Taylor Swift are each nominated in two categories. Surprisingly, YouTube sensation Psy also got two nominations, although he broke many records on the website.
Complete list of all nominees for the 2013 YouTube Music Awards:
Video of the year
- Demi Lovato, Heart Attack
- Epic Rap Battles Of History, Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney
- Girls’ Generation, I Got A Boy
- Justin Bieber, Beauty And A Beat Feat. Nicki Minaj
- Lady Gaga, Applause
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Same Love Feat. Mary Lewis
- Miley Cyrus, We Can’t Stop
- One Direction, Best Song Ever
- Psy, Gentleman
- Selena Gomez, Come And Get It
Artist of the Year
- Eminem
- Epic Rap Battles Of History
- Justin Bieber
- Katy Perry
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
- Nicki Minaj
- One Direction
- Psy
- Rihanna
- Taylor Swift
Breakthrough of the Year
- Kendrick Lamar
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
- Naughty Boy
- Passenger
- Rudimental
YouTube Phenomenon
- Diamonds
- Gangnam Style
- Harlem Shake
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- Thrift Shop
Response of the Year
- Boyce Avenue Feat. Fifth Harmony, Mirrors
- Jayesslee, Gangnam Style
- Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix, Radioactive
- ThePianoGuys, Titanium/Pavane
- Walk Off The Earth Feat. KRNFX, I Knew You Were Trouble
Innovation of the Year
- Anamanaguchi, Endless Fantasy
- Atoms for Peace, Ingenue
- Bat For Lashes, Lilies
- Destorm, See Me Standing
- Toro Y Moi, Say That
New YouTube Music Platform on Its Way
Meanwhile, a report by Billboard informed that YouTube will soon launch a subscription music service. It is said to be similar to Spotify. However, it will not focus only on music since it will also stream videos. The report claims that new YouTube music platform will offer two types of subscriptions – free and premium. The latter of them will be paid and it will give an unlimited access to a rich music library. According to Billboard, the premium account will cost users about $9.99 a month and it will not include ads.
It is expected that YouTube will launched its Spotify-like service by the end of 2013.
