YouTube is letting music-video fans pick the winners of the first YouTube Music Awards, announcing a slate of nominees that includes Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Rihanna and Taylor Swift — plus several popular homegrown musical acts.
The kudocast will stream live from New York City on Sunday, Nov. 3. The Google-owned site is emulating the MTV Video Music Awards to lure users to its vast trove of music videos, which includes those provided through Vevo.
YouTube is aiming to jack up traffic through the voting process on social media: Users can vote at youtube.com/musicawards (or searching for “YTMA” on YouTube) by sharing the official YouTube Music Awards nomination videos across Facebook, Twitter or Google+. YouTube determined the nominations based on data over the last 12 months, to represent the artists and videos with the highest levels of engagement, including views, likes, shares, comments and subscriptions.
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The NYC awards show will feature live performances by Lady Gaga, Eminem and Arcade Fire, along with YouTube musical acts Lindsey Stirling and CDZA, as previously announced. In addition, YouTube has lined up five other acts: Avicii, M.I.A., Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator and Walk Off the Earth.
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The YouTube Music Awards nominees span six categories: Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Response of the Year, YouTube Phenomenon, YouTube Breakthrough and Innovation of the Year.
The nominees in each category are:
- Video of the Year – videos with most fan engagement: Miley Cyrus, “We Can’t Stop”; Justin Bieber (feat. Nicki Minaj), “Beauty and a Beat”; Lady Gaga, “Applause”; One Direction, “Best Song Ever”; PSY, “Gentleman”; Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Mary Lambert) “Same Love”; Girls’ Generation “I Got A Boy”; Demi Lovato, “Heart Attack”; Selena Gomez, “Come & Get It”; Epic Rap Battles Of History, “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney.”
- Artist of the Year – most watched, shared, liked, and subscribed-to artists: Eminem, Epic Rap Battles of History, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, PSY, Rihanna, Taylor Swift
- Response of the Year – best fan remix, parody or response video: 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”
- YouTube Phenomenon – songs that generated the most fan videos: “Diamonds,” “Gangnam Style,” “Harlem Shake,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Thrift Shop”
- YouTube Breakthrough – artists with biggest growth in views and subscribers: Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Naughty Boy, Passenger, Rudimental
- Innovation of the Year – creative video innovations with most views, likes, shares and comments: Anamanaguchi, “Endless Fantasy”; Atoms For Peace, “Ingenue”; Bat For Lashes, “Lilies”; DeStorm, “See Me Standing”; Toro Y Moi, “Say That”
Prior to the awards show, to be held at New York City’s Pier 36, YouTube will stream five music events live from Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow, London and Rio starting at 5 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 3.
The YouTube Music Awards (dubbed “YTMA” for short by the site) will be hosted by actor-musician Jason Schwartzman with comedian-musician Reggie Watts. Show will be directed by filmmaker Spike Jonze, with exec producers Vice Media and Sunset Lane Entertainment. Kia Motors is the premier sponsor of the event.
A YouTube rep the attendees to the awards show in New York and events in other locations will comprise YouTube fans, creators and invited guests, with additional details to be announced.
SEE ALSO: Lady Gaga, Eminem and Arcade Fire to Headline First YouTube Music Awards