Calling All Music Fans: YouTube Music Award Voting Opens Today

What do waking up, paper planes, hives, goblins, and five people on one guitar have in common? On November 3, Avicii, M.I.A., Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, and Walk Off the Earth will all perform live at the first-ever YouTube Music Awards, joining a top musical lineup at Pier 36 in New York City. Actor and musician Jason Schwartzman is joined by comedian and musician Reggie Watts to host this live event. Music video visionary Spike Jonze is creative director, with executive producers VICE Media and Sunset Lane Entertainment.

And now it’s your turn. YouTube Award Nominations across six categories have just been announced at youtube.com/musicawards. Starting today, you can go there or search “YTMA” on YouTube to vote on the nominees by sharing the official YouTube Music Awards nomination videos across Google+, Twitter and Facebook. These video and artist nominations are based on YOUR views, likes, comments and subscriptions over the last 12 months from September 2012, and your votes from today will determine the winners.

The six nomination categories and nominees for this year’s YouTube Music Awards are:

Video of the Year: Honoring the world’s most loved music videos, these nominees represent the videos with the most fan engagement on YouTube over the last year.


• Demi Lovato - Heart Attack
• Epic Rap Battles of History - Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney
• 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: Honoring the acts YouTube fans have made stars, nominees represent the most watched, shared, liked, and subscribed-to artists on YouTube.

• Eminem
• Epic Rap Battles of History
• Justin Bieber
• Katy Perry
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Nicki Minaj
• One Direction
• PSY
• Rihanna
• Taylor Swift

Response of the Year: Honoring the best fan remix, parody or response video, these nominees represent the top “unofficial” fan videos on YouTube based on your views, shares and other 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: Recognizing the YouTube trends the world could not escape from, 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: Honoring the music world’s 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: Starting with videos selected by an international panel of musicians, YouTubers and creative luminaries, we then selected the creative video innovations that resonated most with fans on YouTube, based on views, likes, shares and comments.

• Anamanaguchi - ENDLESS FANTASY
• Atoms For Peace - Ingenue
• Bat For Lashes - Lilies
• DeStorm - See Me Standing
• Toro Y Moi "Say That"

In the run up to the YouTube Music Awards, five music events will be streamed from around the world on YouTube, culminating in the live awards celebration at Pier 36 in New York City. The shows from Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow, London and Rio will kick off at 5 a.m. ET on November 3, and fans can tune in at youtube.com/musicawards.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to youtube.com/musicawards to watch the nomination videos and cast your votes. Stay tuned for more information on the big show and we’ll see you on Sunday, November 3!

The YouTube Music Awards Team recently watched “Announcing the first-ever YouTube Music Awards.”