Understanding Music Awards
The Billboard Music Awards have been celebrating their 23rd year of bringing the best music talent to our nation’s stage. They are a non profit organization that selects music artists that have an outstanding publicist and a strong promotional campaign, and presents them with the highest honors in music. The nominations are announced each month. They are voted on by an independent panel of music industry insiders who select the featured acts for the month. No one is allowed to vote for the award and the actual winner is chosen by a special panel.
This is the only award show that gives a major award to an up and coming artist without promoting them by any means. This has been a long standing tradition and was created so that artists would not be overlooked by the music industry and the public when they are up for major honors. Presented by Live Nation, the Awards can be seen on satellite TV, online and on all the major television networks. With a heavy advertising campaign, Live Nation can sometimes overshadow the performances at the Music Awards itself.
Over the years the Music Awards have had a lot of different acts featured but the traditional ones have always been consistent favorites. The current list includes the following: Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones, Macy Gray, Dave Matthews, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Britney Spears, and many other up and coming artists. The music industry awards have always been a time for artists to get media coverage and to promote themselves. Taylor Swift was nominated for the 2021 Grammys alone. This was an amazing feat for an up and coming artist.
The music awards are voted on by music lovers in America. This means that while they may be chosen by a panel of music insiders, the actual winners are generally fans of the music that win the award. Live Nation has used this to their advantage by promoting their artists and helping them earn awards at the Grammies and MTV awards as well as many other shows across the country. It is somewhat of a popularity competition as well as a marketing opportunity for artists.
When looking at past winners of the Grammies and MTV awards you will notice that many of the top prizes went to artists with major record sales. The chart position winners generally did not have a major record label backing them. Artists like Radiohead and Nirvana won multiple Grammies for their efforts but did not have the marketing budget to support a major label. They were able to use Live Nation for their chance at a trophy. This same theory can be applied to the American Music Awards. While they do not usually promote the artists they do give props to the songs that are being produced and sold by an artist with significant sales.
Grammies and MTVs break down into two different categories: music awards. The Grammies honor new and emerging artists based solely on the quality of their music and not necessarily on chart performance or airplay. The MTV Music Awards honor chart topping songs and performances. These awards are based largely on chart placement rather than creative artistic effort. This makes them particularly valuable for those artists who are recording an album and do not yet have a significant record label backing them. Whether they win or lose, they are still quite prestigious.