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When U2 takes the stage at the Rose Bowl venue in Los Angeles on Sunday at 8:30pm PT as part of its U2 360° tour, fans in sixteen countries around the world including the United States (full list below) will be able to tune in and watch the whole concert, live and for free, on YouTube — the first time YouTube has ever broadcast a complete concert live.
“We are streaming the Rose Bowl U2 live concert onto our platform, inviting millions of people around the country and around the world to participate in what we say is the world’s largest band on the world’s largest platform,” said Google’s director of YouTube partner development Chris Maxcy.
YouTube has experimented with live content before, broadcasting a its YouTube Live show in November of 2008, and showing live segments of the Outside Lands music festival, and says it plans to offer more webcasts similar to this U2 one in the future. But don’t expect it to become a place where you can watch live music any time — not until the rights situations get sorted out. The reason you don’t already see more live music, now that the technology is here, is that the rights associated with doing it are complex and often owned by multiple parties (band members, song writers, labels, publishers, managers, the venue, the production company, etc.), all of whom must be wined and dined (or at least persuaded to sign a piece of paper) before the song can be webcast.
When asked whether rights issues would hamper a wider rollout of the program, Maxcy implied that the rights issue makes this something that will only be available for high-profile bands, due to the amount of negotiating that must take place before a show is webcast.
“Obviously, when you have the opportunity to get the world’s largest band in a venue like this, we thought that 90,000 seats wasn’t enough,” said Maxsy. “So we will continue obviously to look for opportunities to provide that value within the context of making sure that we’re covering ourselves and the band with respect to all licensing that we need to do.”
He didn’t specify how YouTube’s live, audio-and-video streaming technology differs from its other streams, but acknowledged that a different system is in place for them — and that it will be able to handle millions of users from the 16 countries covered by its licensing arrangement. The show will be presented as a free, ad-supported stream; the types of ads that will be used “are still to be determined.”
As with YouTube’s stream of the movie Taxi Driver last Friday, fans will be able to chat with each other as they watch, using an integrated Twitter feed. Another thoughtful addition to U2’s free concert: a “donate now” button linking to the RED campaign, a charity co-founded by Bono whose goal is to eliminate AIDS in Africa.
You can watch the live event at YouTube.com/U2 starting at 8:30pm PT on Sunday, October 25 if you are in any of the following countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Mexico, India, Israel, South Korea and the Netherlands. Following the show, an archived version will be available at YouTube.com/U2official. (Apparently, Utube.com was already taken.)
See Also:
- Is It So Bad That Bono Does Good?
- U2 Tracks Apparently Leaked from Bono’s Holiday Home
- U2 360° Tour Preview - Video - Wired
- YouTube Music Community Manager’s Favorite Videos of All Time
- Warner’s Music Returns to YouTube Following Nine Month Hiatus
- YouTube Can’t Save the Music Business (Yet?)
- Google, Universal to Launch Music Hub ‘Vevo’
Source: Eliot Van Buskirk
