The first ever YouTube Music Awards celebrated the year's best music, as chosen by YouTube viewers, in a two hour live cast on November 3, 2013.
Artists including The Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, MIA, Tyler, the Creator, Avicii, CDZA, Lindsey Stirling, and Eminem performed live music videos conceived by leading directors and creators including Spike Jonze, Lena Dunham, Chris Milk, and Joe Sabia.
Created by Spike Jonze, Chris Milk, and YouTube, and hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts, the livecast drew over 4 million viewers and over 50 million views in the following week.
In 2015, we reconceived the YTMAs as an on-demand show that honored 50 of the year's most accomplished musicians with groundbreaking new videos from artists including Nicky Jam and Enrique Iglesias, Migos, Charli XCX, Kygo, FKA Twigs, and Ed Sheeran, generating over 2.3 billion views.