2014 is the year the Brit Awards got digital. The annual celebration of home-grown pop enlisted creative company Somethin' Else to make sure viewers can watch Brit Awards coverage on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Wherever you are in the world, you will be able to watch the Brits.
Furthermore, this year will see the Social Vote Award for British Video, allowing viewers from around the world to champion their favourite act through Twitter for just 90 minutes during the live broadcast. In previous years, the public has been able to choose the winner of the British Breakthrough Act through an online vote that has been open for a number of weeks.
However, the social vote is different. Just after 8pm on Wednesday, Brits host James Corden will read out the voting weapon: a hashtag that, according to Twitter's Head of Music Sunil Singhvi, is 'a closely guarded secret'. After 90 minutes of frantic tweeting, the tweets will be counted and the winner will be awarded on stage.
The key players in the awards are the Brits Academy, comprised of more than 1,000 members from record companies, music publishers, students, artist management, TV presenters, DJs, music lawyers, journalists and retailers, among others. Their nominations will choose who wins in the majority of the categories, aside from British Breakthrough Act, Critics Choice (which is announced ahead of the awards), British Producer and Brits Global Success Award, which goes to the act with the highest international sales from the previous year.
One criticism frequently levelled at the Brits is that they celebrate only established and commercial pop acts. History has shown that a public vote can change this - in 1999 unlikely indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian won Best Newcomer, much to the chagrin of pop management maestro Peter Waterman, who demanded a recount.
2014's Twitter voters will be selecting their favourite from the most-viewed British music videos during 2013. Ellie Goulding is nominated twice alongside Naughty Boy, Brits Critics Choice-winner Sam Smith, John Newman and One Direction. The boyband has six Twitter accounts - one for each member as well as for the group, with a total of nearly 82 million followers.
Surely this gives them an advantage among the 'young fans sat watching the awards with the mobiles or tablets' Singhvi says the voting is aimed at? 'In reality it could be quite unpredictable', Singhvi says. Of the 240 million Twitter users, half follow a musician - although a third follow a One Direction account. There are also the tastes of the global YouTube audience and the casual ITV viewers to be considered.
It's not quite enough to suggest that the Directioners aren't going to win this one for the boyband. However, the transparency of the social media vote follows a new trend. Singhvi praises the Best Video bid as 'a truly public vote' which 'encourages conversation' and is thoroughly viral. There is no room for embarrassing secret fandom here.
In a small way, the Brits are the first major music award ceremony to pick up on the purely social strategy of November's inaugural YouTube Awards. The awards were voted for in their entirety by social media-savvy members of the public from a shortlist of the most viewed videos from actings ranging from Taylor Swift to online violin phenomenon Lindsey Stirling. The results made for themost eclectic and interesting music awards ceremony in recent years.
For the time being, the Brits Academy will continue to decide upon the majority of the awards. But the impact of social media could see greater nods to the fans in future.
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