MTV VMA 2015: How To Live Stream The MTV Video Music Awards … For Free!

The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards—or, as everyone else calls them, the VMAs—are set to air tonight, Sunday August 30, at 9 P.M. ET. Hosted by the thoroughly uninhibited Miley Cyrus and featuring performances from the likes of Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, The Weeknd and more, there’s a high likelihood that something cray is going to happen tonight. Oh, did we mention Kanye West is gonna be in the house, too?

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So, how are you going to watch it? MTV is livestreaming portions of tonight’s Video Music Awards on virtually every social platform currently in existence, which is great! For as little as MTV cares about airing actual music videos on their airwaves, they have put seemingly all of their resources into getting the VMAs onto services like Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Vine and more. (Probably not AshleyMadison.com, though.)

First, though, the basics! If you want to live stream the VMAs, head over to MTV.com for their VMA All Access Live Stream. There, users will be able to control their viewing experience in just about any way imaginable: red carpet, mainstage, backstage and crowd camera angles will all be available for you to watch the show from. There promises to be tons of footage that never makes it to the show that they’ll be airing on basic cable, so you should definitely be sure and check that out starting at 6:30 P.M. ET when the MTV VMA Pre-Show begins broadcasting.

Speaking of the pre-show, Variety reports that MTV has plans to produce a live-streaming, 360-degree virtual-reality video experience for the red-carpet pre-show. “Virtual reality is changing the way people see the world and we’re excited to bring this innovative storytelling tool onto the VMA red carpet ahead of this year’s show,” said Colin Helms, senior vice president of MTV Connected Content. To be totally honest, we don’t know very much about virtual reality, but if you do, please fill us in! (Like, do I need some sort of special space headset to watch it?!? Feeling confused.)

Anyway, back to the show! If you’re all up on Snapchat, MTV has teamed up with the powerhouse service to produce a special VMA Live Story. If you’re unfamiliar, a live story is “a sequence of photos and/or videos taken of a particular event or place that are curated by Snapchat and transmitted to its young-skewing global platform.” So they’ve got that going for them!

As for other digital extensions, MTV Style will turn its Periscope over to the women of Shop Jeen, an online clothing and accessories store, to provide real-time commentary on red carpet fashions. And, as mentioned above, there promises to be cool stuff on MTV’s Periscope channel, MTV’s Instagram, and more!

If all those social bells and whistles don’t do anything for you, that’s okay. You can always watch the show on the MTV App (available for iOS or Android)—that is, if you have authenticated!—the All Access Live Stream or, um, your television.

RELATED: MTV EXPOSES MILEY’S BARE BREAST DURING VMAS (NSFW)