In case you missed the news, today is the first day of the Bridge School Benefit Concert down in Mountain View and the entirety of tonight’s performance will be webcast online via YouTube and Facebook. READ MORE
YouTube
YouTube is joining in on the Pink Floyd week celebrations by offering up a pretty cool experience at the band’s official YouTube channel. You can tune in each hour on the hour for Pink Floyd Live from Wembley November 1974 (featuring edits from the original touring screen films). Definitely a heady set of visuals especially for 1974 animations…
Another cool thing about the channel is the ability for fans to chat along with the video as it’s streaming, and apparently YouTube can embed some of that content back into the video each time around making it more of an interactive conversation for fans that want to try and make themselves heard in front of a “global” audience.
YouTube is officially and publicly testing their “live streaming” platform for a select group of partners today and tomorrow only. TechCrunch had the scoop last night and the YouTube Blog has the story this morning…
From U2 to the Indian Premier League to the White House to E3, we’ve worked closely with our partners to give you a front row seat to a wide array of live events. Today and tomorrow, tune in as we open a new chapter of YouTube live streaming.
It’s interesting that they’ve publicly testing for only two days; given how the company has always tested, tested, and tested before products ever see the light of day, this is clearly a stress test of sorts. Announce the channels, see how many people tune in to test the technology, record data, mine that data, then try to figure out what advertising you can sell for “live” broadcast events, get a set of beta advertisers ready to commit big budgets, then get publishers to agree, then launch. Or something like that.
This new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels; all broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Included in the test is a “Live Comments” module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community. For the purpose of the trial, this offering will only be available today and tomorrow. Based on the results of this initial test, we’ll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide.
This is an insanely smart move, obviously and something that I’m sure USTREAM.tv is a bit nervous about. Most major brands, publishers and advertisers are actively engaging folks via YouTube, so why not add a bit more functionality to that engagement by offering the ability for “live” tune-in style events? This means that Holy Fuck can stop using USTREAM to broadcast this shows and go directly to YouTube where a larger audience is naturally hanging out. We hope the test goes well. In the future, we can easily envision that YouTube can be that platform for artists, labels and managers to engage with fans through live concerts and streaming events. The Arcade Fire event was just the first of many.
Arcade Fire – Unstaged (Full Show) [YouTube]
Got nothing to do tonight? Watch the entire Arcade Fire show from Madison Square Garden from a few weeks back, the one that was webcast and stuff. READ MORE
In case you missed the news earlier this week, Arcade Fire announced that they would be offering a streaming webcast from their Madison Square Garden concert on August 5th via YouTube. I’ll be dancing it up at Phish at the Greek in Berkeley, so I’ll only get to catch the highlights later as they get archived. With the band’s upcoming release, The Suburbs, set to drop that week (even though the album has already leaked), we’ll likely see a rejuvenated, matured and ready-for-the-road band given how much time they’ve had off. Plus, they’re already started warming up and playing shows and this will come after plenty of time to work out any show jitters or mishaps. I’m excited to see how it comes out.
And further, it’s nice to see YouTube continue to push to innovate in this space given that the platform and model for video consumption has long been ingrained in anyone that frequents any social network online these days. People know how to share YouTube videos. It’s a familiar product. And opening up such a familiar, mainstream platform to the world of live concert streaming is a wonderful thing for all of us fans. NewTeeVee.com reports that we’ll see a bunch of these coming soon….
Vevo and YouTube will be pushing deeper into the live music scene with a five-part concert series that will be streamed live online. The new “Unstaged” live music series will host performances from major artists like John Legend and the Roots, and will have interactive features, like being able to switch camera angles and vote on encore performances at the show.
Hello, music lover, meet “Unstaged,” a new five-part concert series brought to you by YouTube, American Express and VEVO. Each performance will not only be streamed live on YouTube, but it will also have unique on- and offline components to entertain fans — for example, you may be able to vote on the encore performance or switch camera angles. And if you miss anything, no worries: the full show and highlights will be available on the artist’s channel soon after the show.
Sick, right? Now where’s our official Phish webcast for the Greek run? Given how unique the Telluride shows are and how ridiculously sold-out they are, couldn’t this be something that the rest of the Phish audience can enjoy on the web? The band and any partner courting them are really shitting the bed on this one. More on this one early next week; we’ve been dying to unleash an updated and proper rant to our original post on why Phish needs to start webcasting their shows. I really wish I could pay for a high quality Telluride webcast. Like, a lot.
youtube.com/bonnaroo
Not going to Bonnaroo this year? Don’t fret. YouTube will be broadcasting the live festival webcast at youtube.com/bonnaroo, and we’ll post the schedule when get it so you know what you need to witness live as it happens.
Don’t forget that NPR Music is going to be broadcasting a bunch from the festival as well.
Watch the entire Phish New Year’s Eve show from Miami by heading over to McNastyShasta’s channel on YouTube. I know what I’m doing today.
