YouTube hosted the inaugural YouTube Music Awards, a celebration of music honoring the artists and songs that YouTube fans have turned into global hits over the past year. Unlike traditional award shows, this event presented live performances by top artists, alongside some of YouTube’s biggest stars, including Arcade Fire, Avicii, CDZA, Earl Sweatshirt, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lindsey Stirling, M.I.A., Tyler, The Creator and Walk off the Earth.
Hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and executive produced by VICE Media and Sunset Lane Entertainment, the event was lead by creative director Spike Jonze in collaboration with Chris Milk, Damien Kulash, Fafi, James Larese, Joe Sabia, Tyler the Creator, and Ray Tintori. The event was presented in partnership with Kia Motors Corporation.
In the run up to the YouTube Music Awards, four music events were also streamed from around the world on YouTube from Seoul, Moscow, London and Rio.
Modern day music fans from across the globe spoke loud and clear, casting winning votes for artists in the following categories:
YOUTUBE MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS LIST*
· Video of the Year: Girls’ Generation – I Got A Boy
Recognizes this year’s biggest videos, based on what you watched, shared, liked and commented on.
· Artist of the Year: Eminem
Honors the biggest acts of the last year on YouTube, based on total number of views, likes, shares, comments and subscribers.
· Response of the Year: Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix – Radioactive
Recognizes the best fan remixes, covers or parodies, based on your views, likes, shares and comments.
· YouTube Phenomenon: Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble
Recognizes the YouTube videos that inspired the biggest number of fan responses.
· YouTube Breakthrough: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Recognizes the biggest breakout acts on YouTube, based on artists with the highest growth in views and subscribers over the past year.
· Innovation of the Year: DeStorm – See Me Standing
Recognizes some of the most unique concepts and creators in music videos on YouTube this year.
*Nominations for the YouTube Music Awards were announced on October 21, 2013 and based on YouTube data over the last 12 months from September 2012, with nominees representing the artists and videos with the highest levels of YouTube fan engagement, including views, likes, shares, comments, and subscriptions. Fans were able to vote from October 21st through the start of the Awards by sharing sharing official YTMA nomination videos across Google+, Twitter and Facebook.
