The Drive To Five: #PlatVnyl4

We conclude our look back at the history of the Platinum Vinyl Awards, our Drive To Five as we call it, with our recap of #PlatVnyl4, more commonly known as last years awards. Since it was the last award, you can catch the nominees and the winners at the appropriate link. At least for now. The nominees page will be updated when the new nominees are announced. For #PlatVnyl4 awards were given in 52 categories, the biggest award year yet, 5 categories greater than #PlatVnyl3. There were 8 video awards, one more than #PlatVnyl3, 15 album awards, 13 song awards, and 16 General Field Awards.

We finally hit the big time with nominees. With the exception of Children's Music Album of The Year, all genre's were able to hit their goal of 7 nominees, and some exceeded it, becoming "genre busters".  The simple result of this abundance of good talent is it pushed the limits of this one man band, and an award ceremony slated for April or May got pushed to August and beyond. Ouch. That should not happen this year.

Another change for #PlatVnyl4 was a more professional look. Awards were handed out by media. First the video awards, then the album awards, and finally the song awards, with the general field finishing it off, with a few of them sprinkled throughout as breaks. That way each winner got a bit of a breather before they had to make their way on stage, get the award from the attractive presenter, and make a boring speech. (We can dream, can't we?)

One part of the awards ceremony improved it by its absence. There was no Fallen Award this year, as there was no major scandal to warrant one. It seems to only strike in odd years, so it should happen this year. (In fairness, the award in #PlatVnyl3 was honorary).

Finally, #PlatVnyl4 was the first Award to fully take advantage of social media. It had been part of the awards since #PlatVnyl2, but it shone here, as nominees and winners were announced four ways. On the Blog, On Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

That gets us off the ground here with #PlatVnyl4. We will get into the meat of the awards next time. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.