Imagine an award show that doesn’t feature awkward jokes from an uncomfortable host, trite thank you speeches, and seemingly mismatched collaboration performances.
Two years ago, YouTube hosted their inaugural Music Awards Show. The event, live-streamed from a New York warehouse, was intended to celebrate the many musicians that have leveraged the platform to reach fans and build a loyal audience over the years. The video quality and response was mixed. So this year YouTube changed it up.
On March 2nd, Youtube announced the 50 award winners, chosen for their impact on the platform and massive growth in subscribers, video views, and audience engagement. On Monday, 13 music videos featuring a selection of the honored artists and performers, went live on the award show website. As the introductory video (which has already been watched more than 3 million times) states, this is an award show that you can “enjoy whenever, and however you want.” And there are big names involved. Martin Garrix, Kygo, Charli XCX, and Lindsey Stirling are among the artists premiering music videos with the platform this week.
The show was “sort of” hosted by YouTube personality Tyler Oakley (Oakley has more than 6.6 million channel subscribers, and is known for breaking artists like Betty Who by endorsing her on his show), in a string of backstage commentary videos.
The format is definitely a different experience than your traditional award show. A video playlist that includes the official music videos, Oakley’s introductions, and behind the scenes footage from several artists is provided, making it easy to follow, but it would not be surprising if viewers dropped off. However, each of the music videos has already racked up at least a few hundred thousand views.
Some are more popular than others, Martin Garrix feat. Usher, with the track “Don’t Look Down,” has close to a million views in total, compared to some of the lesser known artists like Shamir, whose video for “Call It Off” is on the lower end of the spectrum at only 200,000+ (still, that is close to 2x the number of views in one day, than Shamir saw for his all-time most popular YouTube video “On The Regular” in the past month).
You have to give it to YouTube – the clear focus on the music itself is refreshing. They haven’t skimped on quality and cost. The videos are well-produced, promote the artist and their work more than the platform itself, and the entire format is an innovative approach to a tired tradition.
YouTube made the news last week as well. Previewing their new artist data tool during SXSW, the video platform is putting a lot of emphasis on supporting artists. The strategy is clever: YouTube reaps the positive publicity from making moves that are beneficial to artists. [Forbes]
