YouTube will live-stream Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in the video site’s continuing push to bring music festivals to digital screens.
The Google Inc.-owned YouTube will present online coverage of the festivals, two of the summer’s largest. YouTube has previously streamed festivals such as Tennessee’s Bonnaroo, San Francisco’s Outside Lands, and, earlier this year, Southern California’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits will be presented with extensive live concert coverage from the various festival stages.
Chicago’s Lollapalooza takes place Aug. 5-7 and will be promoted with a “Lollapalooza Week” on YouTube. Exactly which acts will be streamed is yet to be announced, but this year’s top performers include Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Muse and My Morning Jacket. It’s the 20th anniversary for the Perry Farrell-founded event, which began as a touring festival.
“For those of us who can’t make it — we have YouTube,” said Farrell in a statement. “Be a voyeur to this year’s Lollapalooza. Watch as musicians offer their souls and the crowd devours them. You just may forget that you aren’t really there.”
Austin City Limits, which runs from Sept. 16-18 in the Texas capital, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Its acts include Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, and My Morning Jacket.
For YouTube, the deal represents growth toward an increasingly robust digital experience. Streaming festivals is appealing to the site because sponsors like having their names attached to the well-known events, and users typically stay longer than they might for three-minute videos. Viewing can average nearly an hour.
“This allows us to showcase multiple artists each day, which is really exciting to users,” says Dana Vetter, YouTube’s music marketing programs manager. “