YouTube, looking to catch the ears of music fans worldwide, will feature live performances by Lady Gaga, Eminem, Arcade Fire and other artists for the inaugural YouTube Music Video Awards on Sunday, Nov. 3.
The event is modeled on kudocasts like MTV’s Video Music Awards, but the winners of the YouTube Music Awards will be picked by the Internet video site’s visitors. In addition to big names from the music biz, the event will highlight popular YouTube performers including dubstep violinist Lindsey Stirling and CDZA.
The YouTube Music Awards will include performances and musical collaborations staged across the globe — including in Seoul, Moscow, London and Brazil — culminating in a live event at New York City’s Pier 36.
Filmmaker Spike Jonze is the event’s creative director, and thesp Jason Schwartzman will host. Vice Media and Sunset Lane are exec producers for the YouTube Music Awards. YouTube has signed automaker Kia Motors as the event’s premiere sponsor.
“The whole night should feel like a YouTube video itself,” Jonze said in a statement. “We’re getting together a group of amazing artists and filmmakers to do this live — tune in to see what happens live.”
YouTube will announce nominations for the awards Oct. 17, based on global music-video views and shares over the past year, and the winners will be voted by the site’s users by sharing across social media.
“YouTube is home to both established artists and the next generation of musical talent,” said Danielle Tiedt, YouTube’s marketing veep. “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.”
Vevo, majority owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group with a minority stake held by Google, is the single biggest supplier of music videos to YouTube. Vevo content generates more than 3 billion views on YouTube content monthly. However, Vevo has undertaken a strategy to boost views off YouTube, because the company generates more ad revenue through other platforms.
This year, YouTube has held two other genre-themed events to promote content partners: Comedy Week in May and Geek Week in August.
Watch a teaser for the YouTube Music Awards with Jason Schwartzman:
