By Noah
Apple announced its inaugural music awards Monday, joining Spotify in doling out prizes based on streaming data.
The tech giant gave four artists its first-ever “Apple Music Awards” in five categories. Apple Music’s editorial staff picked three of the winners while the other two were based on streaming figures.
Goth-pop crooner Billie Eilish snatched three of the five awards, suggesting some overlap between the numbers and the staffers’ tastes.
Her debut LP “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” was Apple’s most-streamed album in 2019, earning her the Album of the Year honor. Eilish was also named Apple’s Artist of the Year and shared the Songwriter of the Year award with her brother and musical partner, Finneas O’Connell.
Viral rapper Lil Nas X took Song of the Year for his runaway hit “Old Town Road,” which Apple says was its most-streamed song this year. And the service’s musical minds picked the twerking pop diva Lizzo as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
Apple will celebrate the awards Wednesday with a live-streamed concert from Eilish at the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters. The winners will get a sleek aluminum plaque with Apple’s 12-inch “silicon wafer” suspended in glass.
Apple’s honors came about two weeks after Spotify announced its first awards show on March 5. The Mexico City fete will be “based entirely on user-generated data,” the company said.
