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.

Following The Beat

Time to take a little break from the music and engage in a little shameless self promotion. Without it who would know The Night Beat even exists. I know I have a lot of readers, though followers are few. Take a risk. Make it official. Follow The Night Beat.

Due to the demise of Google Friend Connect, people with Blogger Blogs have had to do a little scrambling to keep our followers. I probably have been a little slower at it than the rest, but I am getting to it. Here are a few ways that you can keep up with things.

• Twitter: Right now @wencdj is my personal twitter account, as well as that of The Night Beat. Music, personal insights, just about anything can be found here. I may have to do a Night Beat and Personal account soon, but for now there's just one.
• NetworkedBlogs: This is my fallback position right now for blog followers. You can follow The WENC Night Beat here. I would appreciate it greatly.
• Facebook: I still feel like I've crossed over to the dark side with this one. Anyway, I have both a Personal Page and a Night Beat Fan Page.
• Google+ : This one is still a work in progress. It is currently just my personal page, but I am going to be creating a Night Beat Page here as well.

That really is all I have to say for now. I intend to get a YouTube channel up one of these days, mainly because I have a stash of mp4 music videos (obtained legally, though free) that not only would I like to share with my readers, since I have an ancient computer, putting them online may be my only way to enjoy them. That is for a later time, however.

On a humorous note, I was thinking I should get on that Google+ page. The Night Beat needs something to fall back on when Facebook drops below $5 within a month and gets delisted. Everybody wondered in G+ was doomed, but they didn't remember that Google has tons of dough and makes more by the second. Facebook has users, but revenue, not so much. That ends this post of shameless self-promotion. We will return shortly to our regular music commentary. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.