YouTube Music Awards Nominations Announced

YouTube on Monday announced nominations for its first Music Awards, to be directed by Spike Jonez and set for live webcasting on Nov. 3 from New York City’s Pier 36.

The online video juggernaut asked viewers to vote on the nominations, which have been grouped along six categories, including Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Response of the Year, YouTube Phenomenon, YouTube Breakthrough and Innovation of the Year.

The nominees were selected based on views over the past 12 months. Actor Jason Schwartzman will host the awards show, which will include guest performances by Eminem, Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire, among others.

YouTube on Monday also announced it has added Avicii and M.I.A. to the lineup of performers.

Nominations range from mainstream musicians such as Miley Cyrus to artists whose success came largely through YouTube, including PSY and Epic Rap Battles, whose video, “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney” won a Gold Certification from the Recording Industry Association of America earlier this year, primarily on the strength of its YouTube views.

Now, for the nominations:

Video of the Year: Nominees represent the videos with the most fan engagement on YouTube over the last year.

• Epic Rap Battles Of History — “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney”
• Demi Lovato — “Heart Attack”
• Girls’ Generation ­– “I Got A Boy”
• Justin Bieber (feat. Nicki Minaj) — “Beauty And A Beat”
• Lady Gaga ­– “Applause”
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Mary Lambert) — “Same Love”
• Miley Cyrus ­ — “We Can’t Stop”
• One Direction ­– “Best Song Ever”
• PSY ­– “Gentleman”
• Selena Gomez ­– “Come & Get It”

Artist of the Year: Focused on acts YouTube fans have made stars, nominees represent the most watched, shared, liked, and subscribed ­to artists.

• Eminem
• Epic Rap Battles
• 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, these nominees represent the top “unofficial” fan videos on YouTube based on views, shares and other social activity.

• 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: Nominees are based on the phenomena that generated the most fan videos.

• Diamonds
• Gangnam Style
• Harlem Shake
• I Knew You Were Trouble
• Thrift Shop

YouTube Breakthrough: Focusing on breakout new acts, nominees represent the artists who experienced the biggest growth in views and subscribers.

• Kendrick Lamar
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Naughty Boy
• Passenger
• Rudimental

Innovation of the Year: Most creative and innovative music videos on YouTube.

• Anamanaguchi ­– “ENDLESS FANTASY”
• Atoms For Peace ­– “Ingenue”
• Bat For Lashes ­– “Lilies”
• DeStorm ­– “See Me Standing”
• Toro Y Moi — “Say That”

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