The first ever YouTube Music Awards took place in New York last night. The star-studded affair was hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts, with Spike Jonze responsible for the show's direction, and featured live sets from the likes of Eminem and Arcade Fire.
The ceremony - as you might expect - was streamed live on YouTube as opposed to a traditional television broadcast.
Eminem beat the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Katy Perry, One Direction to the awards of Artist of the Year, based upon who was the most popular person on the video-sharing website in terms of most watched, shared, liked and subscribed-to videos. In something of a scheduling error, Eminem wasn't available to collect his award because he was backstage preparing for his live performance of new song 'Rap God'.
The awards were an indication of YouTube's foray into the music realm. As well as hosting countless music videos on site, the Google-owned website is tipped to be launching a paid music streaming website in the near future. YouTube is also considering offering an ad-free version of their site to users - for a sum.
Other winners last night included South Korean act Girls' Generation, who are massive stars in their home country. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were awarded the title of Breakthrough of the Year.