YouTube enlists Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX for its 2015 music awards

Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX are among the artists filming exclusive videos for the second YouTube Music Awards, which will take place online later in March.

YouTube is working with Vice Media to produce new videos from 15 artists, which will launch simultaneously on its site on 23 March.

Vice will pair the artists – also including Martin Garrix, Max Schneider, Shamir, Megan Nicole, Cahoots, Migos and Nicky Jam – with video directors for the clips, which will be housed on YouTube’s own music awards channel.

Several of those acts are also on the list of 50 artists due to receive awards as part of the event, which YouTube says will celebrate artists with the biggest growth in views, subscriptions and/or interaction from fans over the last six months.

Stars including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, One Direction and Katy Perry will also be among the award-winners, along with emerging artists like FKA Twigs, George Ezra, Meghan Trainor, and YouTube-born stars such as Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix.

The event is part of YouTube’s growing ambitions for its role as a music service, which also include the launch of YouTube Music Key, a free-or-subscription rival to Spotify and other streaming music services.

“These artists prove that YouTube is not only a place to launch new music and be discovered by fans around the world, but also where artists and fans truly connect,” wrote YouTube’s Eshan Ponnadurai in a blog post announcing the 2015 awards.

Four of the 10 most popular YouTube channels by views in 2014 focused on music – Katy Perry, Shakira, Spinnin’ Records and Enrique Iglesias – while Taylor Swift was the third biggest channel on YouTube in January 2015 with 361.3m video views that month.

YouTube has some prominent critics in the music industry, however. Ahead of Music Key’s launch it sparked fury from many independent labels over the contractual terms they were offered – and allegations from trade body WIN that YouTube was threatening to block labels’ channels if they refused to sign up.

YouTube eventually struck a licensing deal with indie licensing agency Merlin, but more recently in January 2015 was criticised by independent artist Zoe Keating, who said she’d been offered the same contract and threatened with a similar block.

The YouTube Music Awards will, unsurprisingly, focus on more positive aspects of the company’s relationships with musicians, including its potential as a platform to break new stars.

Its online-only nature is a departure from the first awards in 2013, which took the form of a freewheeling, often surreal 90-minute show streamed live from New York, and directed by filmmaker Spike Jonze.

The highlights of that event were the performances – notably Stirling’s Crystallize and Arcade Fire’s Afterlife (above) – which were more like music videos performed live rather than traditional stage setups.

By teaming up with Vice to make the 15 exclusive videos for its 2015 event, YouTube appears to be keeping the best of its inaugural awards, while losing the hooded face-painting, cake-munching and baby-watching that entertained and baffled in equal measure first time round.