MTV is prepping for a follow-up to this spring’s inaugural O Music Awards.
MTV Music Group announced Wednesday that the O Music Awards, or OMAs, will return by the end of the year. This time around, it won’t just be the nominees that are crowdsourced — the online audience will also have a say in what categories the OMAs cover. In April, OMA categories included “best tweet,” “best independent music blog” and “fan army FTW.”
We talked to Shannon Connolly, VP of digital music strategy at MTV Music Group and Dermot McCormack, head of digital for MTV Music group about the OMAs, and the increasing role of digital and online content as it pertains to MTV and its audience.
Connolly told us that one of the goals behind the O Music Awards was to give the MTV Music Group (which consists of MTV, VH1 and CMT) an opportunity to reinvent the award show for a digital audience. That doesn’t just mean streaming a traditional award show online, it means rethinking the structure of a show, its awards and even its frequency. Connolly said it didn’t make sense for the awards to be held on an annual basis. MTV hopes to be able to have a show with more frequency, so the awards can better capture the current state of music in the digital space.
The date for the next OMAs hasn’t been announced — MTV wants to tease out the location and the date — but the event will take place before the end of the year.
McCormack and Connolly both said they see the OMAs as having potential to highlight more types of artists, communities and achievements to the online music community at large. The first OMAs were the second best live streaming event in MTV Music Group history, trailing only the 2009 VMAs (where Kanye West famously cut off Taylor Swift). According to McCormack and Connolly, that proves that there is an audience for this type of event and this type of content.
Fans Set the Tone for Categories, Nominees and Winners
Last time, nominees and winners were all determined by fan votes, which took place via SMS and social media voting. This time, categories are going to be crowdsourced too. As far as deciding on the winners, Connolly told us that MTV is still trying to work out how it will weigh votes. MTV definitely doesn’t want to create another “black box or panel of judges,” as Connolly put it. It wants fans to determine the winners, but the challenge is in figuring out what weight to give votes so that the same artists or bands don’t dominate the conversation.
MTV is also planning on giving fans a more visible role in the ceremony itself, rewarding those fans that create new categories or put in great efforts for campaigning for a winning nominee.
As with last year, voting will take place online, via social media and on mobile devices. The goal, according to McCormack, is to make the awards and the experience leading up to them, available to anyone who is connected to the Internet. This multi-platform strategy is part of what MTV Music Group is embracing in the next phase of its evolution.
You can check out Matt & Kim’s opening performance from the first O Music Awards below.
More About: award shows, mtv, music, o music awards, OMAsFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:17:08 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/K6H43Pcj_HE/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/10/mtv-o-music-awards-2/#comments
MTV Music Group announced Wednesday that the O Music Awards, or OMAs, will return by the end of the year. This time around, it won’t just be the nominees that are crowdsourced — the online audience will also have a say in what categories the OMAs cover. In April, OMA categories included “best tweet,” “best independent music blog” and “fan army FTW.”
We talked to Shannon Connolly, VP of digital music strategy at MTV Music Group and Dermot McCormack, head of digital for MTV Music group about the OMAs, and the increasing role of digital and online content as it pertains to MTV and its audience.
Connolly told us that one of the goals behind the O Music Awards was to give the MTV Music Group (which consists of MTV, VH1 and CMT) an opportunity to reinvent the award show for a digital audience. That doesn’t just mean streaming a traditional award show online, it means rethinking the structure of a show, its awards and even its frequency. Connolly said it didn’t make sense for the awards to be held on an annual basis. MTV hopes to be able to have a show with more frequency, so the awards can better capture the current state of music in the digital space.
The date for the next OMAs hasn’t been announced — MTV wants to tease out the location and the date — but the event will take place before the end of the year.
McCormack and Connolly both said they see the OMAs as having potential to highlight more types of artists, communities and achievements to the online music community at large. The first OMAs were the second best live streaming event in MTV Music Group history, trailing only the 2009 VMAs (where Kanye West famously cut off Taylor Swift). According to McCormack and Connolly, that proves that there is an audience for this type of event and this type of content.
Fans Set the Tone for Categories, Nominees and Winners
Last time, nominees and winners were all determined by fan votes, which took place via SMS and social media voting. This time, categories are going to be crowdsourced too. As far as deciding on the winners, Connolly told us that MTV is still trying to work out how it will weigh votes. MTV definitely doesn’t want to create another “black box or panel of judges,” as Connolly put it. It wants fans to determine the winners, but the challenge is in figuring out what weight to give votes so that the same artists or bands don’t dominate the conversation.
MTV is also planning on giving fans a more visible role in the ceremony itself, rewarding those fans that create new categories or put in great efforts for campaigning for a winning nominee.
As with last year, voting will take place online, via social media and on mobile devices. The goal, according to McCormack, is to make the awards and the experience leading up to them, available to anyone who is connected to the Internet. This multi-platform strategy is part of what MTV Music Group is embracing in the next phase of its evolution.
You can check out Matt & Kim’s opening performance from the first O Music Awards below.
More About: award shows, mtv, music, o music awards, OMAsFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:17:08 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/K6H43Pcj_HE/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/10/mtv-o-music-awards-2/#comments