How was your weekend guys? Did you tune into the Splendour In The Grass stream or maybe the live video from Belgium’s big Tomorrowland EDM festival? I listened to both as I pottered around at home, and also got the chance to see Steve-O from Jackass lovingly crash an intimate Lily Allen gig in Sydney. I was there in person for that. Why? Partly because iHeartRadio has now announced the line-up for its upcoming music festival to be live streamed from Vegas. So much streaming goodness! Great time to be a music fan.
Rather than being an all-you-can-eat, on-demand music streaming service, iHeartRadio is like Pandora: an internet radio service for internet and terrestrial radio stations around the world. It’s free and now available in Australia. For two days from Saturday September 20, fans in Australia will be able to tune into the live audio from the 2014 iHeart Radio Music Festval in Las Vegas. The line-up includes Coldplay, Calvin Harris, Bastille, Steve Aoki, Usher, Nicki Minaj and Motley Crue. Oh, and One Direction and Taylor Swift, if that’s your thing.
Of course, Apple’s 30-day 2014 iTunes Festival in London also kicks off this September with acts like Kylie Mingoue, Maroon 5, Pharrel Williams, Beck and heaps of others.
According to Forbes, streaming concerts for free helps future ticket sales. It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, so Glastonbury recently streamed its its now usual multi-BBC camera glory. Bonnaroo, Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, Pitchfork also got their stream on. There’s heaps of other great streaming festivals I’ve left out.
Here’s hoping we see more streaming from Aussie festivals. I’m done with bros taking drunk selfies with tablets, but would totally miss watching desperate fence jumpers face-planting in front of cops.