Coldplay and Kylie Minogue won two awards each at the BT Digital Music Awards at London’s Roundhouse. The double wins for the U.K. melodic rock act and Australian pop star meant it was a good night for the digital team at EMI’s Parlophone label.
Coldplay won tonight (Oct. 1) for best rock/indie artist and best official Web site for coldplay.com. Minogue won best pop artist and best innovation for Kylie Konnect. In common with almost every nominated act, both Parlophone recording artists failed to attend, although Minogue did send a recorded video message.
Despite the success of Coldplay and Minogue at the awards, they both failed to collect the artist of the year honor, which went to Radiohead. Alternative rock act Vampire Weekend secured the breakthrough artist award, Wiley was named best urban artist and Hadouken! won for best electronic artist.
The ceremony also included performances by pop acts Sugababes, Sam Beeton and Iglu and Hartly, the pop-rock band from California who are currently at No. 5 in the U.K single charts with “In This City” (Mercury). Indie-rock band British Sea Power also played at the ceremony along with Norwegian alternative act Ida Maria.
Beyond the artist categories, iTunes U.K. was named best music store, while the ad-funded free online music service We7 won the best digital service award.
The “Dylan Messenger”, an online promotional tool for Bob Dylan that allows fans to write messages on a series of cue cards in the style of the iconic video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, was recognized for best artist promotion. It was part of the campaign for the “Dylan” (Sony BMG) boxset.
The results were determined by an equal combination of online voting and a judging panel’s verdict. The ceremony, hosted by TV presenters Fearne Cotton and Rufus Hound, will be screened on Oct. 4 at 11.15pm on ITV2.
