YouTube is hosting its first music awards show, with Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire and Eminem scheduled to perform. “The video-sharing website will recognize the songs, artists and videos that were most viewed on its channels in the last year,” YouTube officials announced on Monday, September 30.
The awards show will present winners for six award categories based entirely from viewer votes. Nominations will be announced on October 17. The 90-minute live show will take place at Pier 36 in New York and stream online with actor Jason Schwartzman hosting the event.
YouTube’s Vice President of Marketing, Danielle Tiedt, said in an interview, “We’re trying to create live videos during the award shows so that the experience becomes more about creating than presenting, music is our bread and butter and our heart and soul here at YouTube. Our main goal is to not just do another award show. We wanted to do something special.”
The awards show’s ratings will not be measured by how many people tune into the event. Tiedt stated, “In general, 90% of all views for live events happen after the event itself, the live event is a way to get people talking. Afterwards, it gets shared and shared.”
The YouTube Music Awards show will be aired on November 3rd.
