Drew Baldwin co-created the Streamy Awards five years ago with his business partner, Joshua Cohen, to give meaningful recognition to the online video community. This year, the Streamys will air on VH1 for the first time on Sept. 17.
How did the Streamys start? At the time, we had a new online publication called Tubefilter. We wanted to showcase this new media platform, the Internet. With Tubefilter, we saw a need for a professional publication in the online media space. The landscape was unintentional hits and original content. We saw the dogs on skateboards and true voices of ingenuity and creativity. We wanted to focus on the people who we saw were paving the way for new entertainment.
Do you think awards give a sense of legitimacy to the online video content? I don’t see the Streamy Awards as the best, but [they are] showcasing excellence in the space. It’s definitely a way of giving deserved recognition to those producing outstanding programming. There are 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every single minute; that’s overwhelming. The Streamy Awards can help give someone a start on some of the most compelling programming.
How have you seen the awards evolve?When we started, it looked like a
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