Lady Gaga & Eminem to Headline YouTube's First Music Awards Show

It appears YouTube is entering the music award show game, and they’re doing it with a big splash. Set to headline are Lady Gaga, Eminem and Arcade Fire – all Grammy winners – and all are set to perform. Chelsea Maughan, communications manager at YouTube explained the show had been in the works for quite some time and went on to say this:

“Starting this year, Youtube views were factored into the Billboard Top 100 charts,” she told ABC News. “Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style were huge viral hits too. We’ve always felt like music is a big part of Youtube, and these events felt like the tipping point.”

YouTube will also have their own system when it comes to nominations and awards, steering away from the traditional judges’ panel. Instead, relying on a system using its own data.

“We’ll use different data to determine who gets nominated in which categories,” said Maughan. “It’s more than just the number of hits a video gets.”

In addition, YouTube will not be creating separate categories sorted by genre. Instead, all videos will compete against one another. The nominations will be broken into six different categories which will be announced in October. Lastly, YouTube viewers will be the voters for videos they want to see win at the awards concert on November 3, which will be hosted by actor-musician Jason Schwartzman and creative directed by Spike Jonze. Stay tuned.

Source: Rolling Stone