If you’re a skeptic who thinks MTV lost its focus on the musical artists, you might want to think again. Thanks to multi-platform voting for the network’s upcoming Video Music Awards, artists are seeing noticeable spikes in both their sales and their social fan bases.
MTV opened mobile and online voting last Tuesday when the network initially announced the nominees and first performers. In an effort to leverage the network’s digital following, MTV opted to not have a television nomination special and build buzz exclusively in the digital sphere. The switch proved effective, particularly for artists nominated in a new category, Best Electronic Dance Music Video.
Among the nominees is Avicii, who gained colossal fandom for his mainstream monster hit, “Le7els.” The song has been sampled ad nauseam, and the Swedish DJ hasn’t been shy about asking fans (and fellow artists) to pick a new track. Last month, he went so far as to post this video to his YouTube channel, complete with a list of virtually every other song the artist has made.
Clearly, the fans still can’t get enough. Following the nomination of the “Le7els” video in the EDM category, Avicii gained 100,000 new Facebook fans and 15,000 new Twitter followers. Fellow nominees in the category, Duck Sauce and Skrillex both saw increases across social platforms as well.
While we all wish we could compensate artists for their work by following them on Twitter, that just isn’t exactly the case. Thankfully, social counts aren’t the only figures on the upswing; Best Electronic Dance Music Video nominee Calvin Harris saw an approximate 30% sales bump for his nominated track, “Feel So Close.”
Among the nominees for Best Rock Video, Imagine Dragons saw sales for its EP Continued Silence rocket from #80 to #58, a 12% increase on Nielsen Soundscan. At time of writing, the EP held the #16 spot on the iTunes Main Album Chart and the #6 spot among iTunes Alternative Albums.
Voting will continue through Aug. 26 for all categories except for Best New Artist, which will remain open until Sept. 6. Artists can only hope as the voting continues, the spikes in buzz and profits will continue as well.
The VMAs will air on Sept. 6 at 8/7c on MTV. Hosted by comedian Kevin Hart, the show will include performances from boy-band sensation One Direction and 14-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys, who will debut a new song at the awards show. Until then, you can continue voting online at VMA.MTV.com or on mobile web at M.MTV.com. Verizon subscribers can vote on mobile by texting VMA to 22444.
Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/09/mtv-vma-social-sales/
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