The
moment is fast approaching, when video-streaming platform YouTube will
go the way of television networks and music associations alike, and
launch their very own awards show.
Sunday night's live-streamed YouTube Music Awards
will take place at New York’s pier 36, and the list of celebrities
guesting the stage include everyone from Katy Perry to Tyler the Creator
to Arcade Fire. Nominees for the inaugural set of awards were announced
last week-- only six categories in total -- ranging from Artist of the
Year to Phenomenon of the Year. While the modest approach indicates that
they are rolling out an event that should be taken seriously, critics
have argued that YouTube failed to capitalize on the wide variety of
content that lives on the site, despite the fact that Epic Rap Battles
Of History is honored more than once.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who led the pack in nominations with a
nod in four out of six categories, clearly had a good year. The
Seattle-based rapper and producer team took the music industry by storm
in 2012, with the release of “The Heist,” and have seen their online fan
base grow exponentially. The pair now count a total of more than 3.2
million Facebook page likes, and more than 2.8 million of these added
since Oct. 1 2012 to Oct. 1 2013. In that time, their Twitter
following increased by close to 1.7 million, and they saw nearly 15
million Wikipedia page views -- a staggering increase of 247,000%.
As for overall YouTube video views, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis do
not top the list in comparison to fellow Artist of the Year nominees,
but do see the highest percentage increase at a bump of more than 5,000%
percent compared to the year before. The top spot unsurprisingly goes
to PSY, who counts close to 2.5 billion views in that time period.
Runner-up Justin Bieber saw north of 1 billon. Taylor Swift, Rihanna,
and Katy Perry all have a significantly lower number of views, given
that their official channels are all hosted by partner channel Vevo, but
are still considered to be in the running.
Using YouTube detections to rank the top played tracks on the site
this year, only a few of the nominees from the Video of the Year
category actually make the top ten, namely Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’
“Thrift Shop feat. Wanz,” Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop,” and PSY’s
“Gentleman.” According to this list, Ylvis’ “The Fox” and AWOLNATION’s
“Sail,” who were not nominated might also have merited a nod.
(CHART COURTESY NEXT BIG SOUND)
The candidates for Response of The Year are a list of well-known
YouTube celebrities, who have made a name for themselves through the
platform. Most, if not all of the nominees, have subscriber counts in
the millions, higher numbers in fact than most of the artists nominated
for Artist of the Year. At close to 3.5 million in total, Violinist
Lindsey Stirling has six-fold the number of subscribers that Katy Perry
can boast (see chart above).
As for artists who might have been snubbed, Ariana Grande, Drake and
Imagine Dragons all have tracks with a high number of detections, but
are nowhere to be found on the list.
The choices for the Most Innovative category are far less mainstream,
from Bat For Lashes to Toro Y Moi. The artists behind these videos have
fan bases on Facebook between 50,000 and 300,000 page likes, versus the
millions that artists in previous categories can boast. Only one of
these videos, Atoms For Peace’s “Ingenue,” has seen view counts in the
millions on YouTube. The criteria behind the nominations are slightly
different in this instance, and reflect a more subjective aesthetic
evaluation.
Despite the small number of awards to be handed out Sunday night, and
the potential for much more creative categories such as best goat video
or top shake setting, YouTube has put together a night that will have a
little bit for everyone.
