YouTube is bringing back its annual Music Awards for a second festival, with a new format that is designed to better emphasize the role of fans and creators on the service. The YouTube Music Awards last year were directed by Spike Jonze, and hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts. VICE Media is onboard as a production partner for the event, but it sounds like in addition to the typical star-studded fare, there will also be an effort to involve fan-created mashups, creations and collaborations more directly into the event.
This year’s show will once again seek fan feedback to determine winners for the actual awards given away, and YouTube will be releasing new videos on its platform at a channel dedicated to the event as part of the lead up to the show.
The YTMA show goes down in March, and YouTube promises more in the way of details to come in December, along with additional information in January. We’ll probably here more about who’s directing this time around, as well as about hosts, when those follow-up announcements are made.
YouTube’s focus on music includes the recent launch of its YouTube Music Key subscription service and the free YouTube Music dedicated section of its website. The beta for Music Key just started rolling out, and we’ll have more to share about our experience with the product later on.