MTV is down with digital music -- as long as it's "legal."
On Tuesday, the network that popularized the music video will announce a new awards show designed to celebrate the wild and woolly world of online music and the millions of fans who now consume it, as well as the techies who make it happen.
Dubbed the O Music Awards, the new initiative represents a recognition by MTV that the locus of music buzz is moving onto the internet, and the event is clearly an attempt to connect with so-called "Millennials," (aka the Net Generation), or those under the age of 30, give or take a few years.
"This feels like a special moment," Shannon Connolly, MTV's Vice President for Digital Music Strategy, told Wired.com in an interview. "There's an amazing convergence of music and technology and artists and fans happening now. It's really a renaissance of creativity."
The O Music Awards are a not-so-tacit acknowledgment by MTV that these so called "Echo Boomers" -- most of whom can barely remember a time before the advent of the internet -- are driving popular, (and not-so-popular), musical tastes heading into the second decade of the 21st century.
The multi-platform nature of the initiative is a nod to the multiple ways in which these young people congregate and communicate online, from Facebook and Twitter to text and instant messaging. These youngsters live online, so if you want to reach them, that's where you need to be, Connolly said.
So what does the "O"-word mean?
"The O in O Music Awards has been purposely left open to interpretation to generate a reaction and spur conversation, and can stand for any myriad of words that the audience can choose from that captures the essence of the show in their minds such as open, ongoing, online among countless others," MTV said in a statement.
The first event -- if you can call it that -- will be held on April 28, and will occur across a variety of websites, including MTV.com and VH1.com, as well as various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
MTV did not publicly disclose the physical location of the first event, but Connolly said it might "pop-up" anywhere.
On Tuesday, MTV will announce the categories, nominees, and partners for the event. Among the featured categories are Innovative Music Video, Fan Army FTW, Must Follow Artist on Twitter, NSFW Music Video, Most Viral Dance, Best Independent Music Blog, and Best Animal Performance.
Oh, and Favorite Fuck Yeah Tumblr. (Apparently MTV's legal department is cool with that.)
MTV's lawyers are not cool, however, with Bit Torrent and other peer-to-peer file sharing sites, which is why there are no categories representing them.
The network has attracted some significant sponsors including Ford and Adidas, both companies with an interest in reaching a new, younger generation of consumers.
Of course, this is MTV, so it's not surprising that the nominees include mainstream artists like Lady Gaga, Kanye West, The Flaming Lips, Nicki Minaj and Radiohead. But the nominees also include such web-native artists as Odd Future’s Tyler the Creator, Antoine Dodson/Gregory Brothers, The Lonely Island (of Saturday Night Live fame) and Funny or Die.
Streaming music website Pandora received a nod for Best Music Discovery Service, along with Bandcamp, SoundCloud and The Hype Machine
Beginning Tuesday, music fans can vote via social media websites like Facebook and Twitter or via mobile phone, Connolly said. Fans can even write-in nominees and then generate support for them using social networks, she said. A real-time leader-board will display which nominees are "trending."
With the OMA's, MTV and its partners are clearly signaling that the kids are alright.
And d'you know what? They're right.
See Also:1. MTV Unveils New Music Discovery Website2. Digital Music Sky Not Falling, Reports To The Contrary Notwithstanding3. Listening Post’s Top 10 Hottest Music Sites4. 4 Ways Live and Digital Music Are Teaming Up to Rock Your World5. Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin6. Ten Years After Napster, Music Industry Still Faces the (Free) Music
