With its increasing popularity, YouTube is becoming more and more influential. A case in point: the second annual YouTube Video Awards were viewed around 250,000, 000 times, that's a quarter of a billion views, folks, enough to shape the public taste, create new trends and even make stars of weirdos like Chris "Leave Brittney Alone!" Crocker, who has become a major Internet personality since his very embarassing, very public outburst. Still, with the popularity of do-it-yourself media and the ubiquity of YouTube in the public consciousness, it looks like the best way to release a new music video is not through a major record label, but by putting it on YouTube. This year's award for the Best New Music Video went to Tay Zonday, the 25-year-old singer of "Chocolate Rain". With his new music video being viewed over 15 million times, Zonday has become an Internet superstar and has been invited to appear on several national television shows. Fittingly, the ceremony awarding the prizes for the best new music video and in the other six categories is an entirely online affair, though given the popularity of these awards, there may be an an awards ceremony in the real world in the very near future.
