Live On YouTube Tonight: Arcade Fire Directed By Terry Gilliam

Mg Siegler

MG Siegler is a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch, where he has been writing since 2009. Previously, MG was a general partner at CrunchFund. And before TechCrunch, MG covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked... → Learn More

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Last October, YouTube decided to venture into the concert broadcasting business when they showed a U2 concert in Pasadena, CA all around the world. And they did it live. The result? 10 million streams on a Sunday night. Now they’re expanding on that idea with their “Unstaged” concert series. And the first of those takes place tonight with the band Arcade Fire.

Tonight at 10 PM ET/7PM PT if you visit this YouTube page, you’ll be able to see an entire Arcade Fire show streamed live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. This is excellent both because Arcade Fire just released their first new album in three years this week — and also because Terry Gilliam is directing the broadcast for YouTube.

You may know Gilliam as the director of Hollywood films such as Brazil, The Fischer King, 12 Monkeys, or Fear and Loathing in Last Vegas. Or maybe you know him better as a member of Monty Python, and as the director of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yes, this should be interesting.

And this aims to be more than just a concert. The idea behind the “unconcert” is to allow viewers to interact with the show from their computers. For example, you can choose your own camera angle. And since Arcade Fire’s new album is called The Suburbs, they’re asking fans to participate by submitting pictures of their own suburbs which will be shown during the show.

You can find all the details here. If you miss the show, the page will also host highlight clips of the concert after it’s over.

YouTube says other upcoming Unstaged concerts will include John Legend and The Roots. This is part of their effort with Vevo (the joint music video venture between Google, Sony Music, and Universal Music Group) and American Express.

The whole YouTube/Vevo live music thing is still a bit confusing — which service is in charge here? — but whatever, free live Arcade Fire concent!

Company: YouTube
Website: youtube.com
Launch Date: February 2005
Funding: $11.5M

YouTube provides a platform for you to create, connect and discover the world’s videos. The company recently redesigned the site around its hundreds of millions of channels. Partners from major movie studios, record labels, web original creators, viral stars, and millions more all have channels on YouTube. YouTube is predominantly an ad-supported platform, but also offers rental options for a growing number of movie titles. YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who...

→ Learn more
Company: Vevo
Website: vevo.com
Launch Date: December 8, 2009

VEVO is the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform. VEVO is available in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and United Kingdom through VEVO.com, the mobile web, Mobile and Tablet Apps (iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry Playbook), Connected Television (Xbox, Roku, Boxee) and user embeddable video players. VEVO TV, an always-on broadcast-style music and video channel, is also available in the US and Canada within VEVO.com and apps for iOS,...

→ Learn more

blog comments powered by Disqus