Forget the VMAs, this new awards show is where it’s at. The YouTube Awards Show will air live across the world on YouTube on November 3.
The 90-minute awards show will feature performances from Eminem, Lady GaGa and Arcade Fire and reveal the winners of six award categories. Data from users will drive the nominations and users will then vote for the winners.
"Music is a huge part of what YouTube is and what YouTube has become to music fans around the world," Chelsea Maughan, a YouTube spokeswoman told Mashable.
"The YouTube Music Awards represent the next step in terms of celebrating how big music is on YouTube."
The main broadcast will feature mainstream stars as well as musicians who have built significant followings on YouTube, such as violin dub-step artist Lindsey Stirling and the "musical experiment" group CDZA, who have 3.2 million and 215,000 YouTube subscribers, respectively.
Music mashups during the show will blend YouTube stars with more high-profile celebrities. The event is being helmed by Spike Jonze as creative director, while VICE and Sunset Lane Entertainment will act as executive producers.
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"We’re setting out to create a night that’s all about making things and creativity in the spirit of everyone that uses YouTube," said Jonze. "As well as giving out awards, we’ll be making live music videos. The whole night should feel like a YouTube video itself."
Danielle Tiedt, YouTube’s vice president of marketing, said "From catalyzing careers and pop culture phenomena to propelling a song’s rise to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, our global community’s influence is felt across the music industry."
Indeed, if it weren’t for the medium of YouTube, artists like Psy, who’s hit song Gangam Style is the most watched music video on YouTube, would never have been able to enter the charts globally.
However, online music videos have also been the source of controversy recently, such as Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video that saw naked models parading around and proudly pouting. YouTube initially banned the video, but later reinstated it after viewers were flocking to other music video sites such as Vimeo to view the racy video.
