The 2010 Grammy-Thon!

This year marked a big convergence between the music and digital space. The Grammy's wanted to highlight this more than ever before with its updated site featuring blogs, video and a "We're All Fans" visualizer, where users could see the online buzz of their favorite artists in real time from Flickr, YouTube and Twitter. They also offered for the first time, a 72-hour live-stream including coverage of events leading up to music's biggest night, red carpet action, backstage interviews during the show and a sneak peak into the after-party. That's where I came in, covering it all since Friday afternoon for Grammy Live!

Below are some of the highlights from my Grammy-thon, starting with Sheryl Crow at the MusiCares Person of the Year Benefit:

Bumping into the Black Eyes Peas at Clive Davis' Pre Grammy Gala:

Besides the artists being the obvious rock stars, social media was given rock star status this year as well. The kickoff event to Grammy weekend was a panel bringing together some of the trailblazers online: Kevin Rose of Digg, Pete Cashmore of Mashable and David Karp of Tumblr among others.

Love of the Web was also the inspiration behind Imogen Heep's fashion forward look. The British singer-songwriter who won Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical brought her fans along with her to the awards show with the first ever "TwitDress." Her oversized handmade necklace doubled as a screen, which displayed Tweets from her almost 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

While many feel like the music industry is dying before our eyes, it seems apparent that new media tools are giving it the second wind it needs allowing artists to engage, create and be empowered without traditional leadership from record labels. With Grammy ratings being the highest since 2004, it also proves how much we all love music and connecting with its creators whether it be online, on TV or offline and in concert.