Yahoo’s Streaming Daily Live Concerts: Could Beyonce Be One of Them?
For the next year, Yahoo might save you the stress of ticket site stalking to secure you and your bestie front and center seats (or two with unobstructed views, at least) to the most anticipated live concert tours of the summer and beyond. The company announced it is partnering with online ticketing giant Live Nation to stream a live concert every day for an entire year through a new music-dedicated channel on Yahoo Screen. Your computer just became the stage, and your comfy couch the crowd-free venue.
The Live Nation Channel will act like a golden era MTV for the digital age, giving fans an all-access pass to interviews, backstage shenanigans and special performances from what’s reported to be “the world’s hottest bands and musicians.” Consider those exclusives your opening acts to the daily main event — full-blown coverage of your favorite music icons belting, rapping and shredding the hits. Is there any coincidence that this news breaks around the same time as the most epic of plan-cancelling events is announced, Beyonce and Jay Z’s joint On the Run tour? (Your fingers BETTER be crossed!). We’re heavily speculating here, but if there’s ever a moment that might legit break the Internet, it could be when fans choose to dance along with Bey to “Single Ladies” in the arena that is their living rooms.
Binge listeners, your content just got a whole lot more exciting to look at than shuffling album covers. But binge watchers, Yahoo’s got something up its sleeve for you, too. It will also be dishing out a slew of original programming early next year on Yahoo Screen, including two new TV-length comedy series that will launch ALL. AT. ONCE. Heads up: “Watch less TV” isn’t a good New Year’s resolution for 2015.
The service has recruited some major players to tickle your funny bone, including Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, whose show Other Space will be his first since Freaks and Geeks. The galactic-themed series will feature a crew of burnouts and misfits battling to exist in an alternate universe — all in all a too familiar theme for Feig, so our expectations are high (read: we will be extremely disappointed if there’s not a Franco-Rogan comeback). Yahoo’s second series, titled Sin City Saints, comes from Bryan Gordon, the Emmy-nominated director of The Office. It follows the fallout from a Silicon Valley tycoon’s out-of-touch purchase of a fictional basketball team, and promises a more “sophisticated” strain of comedy a la Curb Your Enthusiasm (so… just painfully awkward then?). Each eight-episode series can be viewed on your desktop or Apple TV and Roku, just like you normally would with original titles from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon.
In the midst of the entertainment-heavy content push, Yahoo is also carving out space to feature what might be the most interesting subjects of all (well, especially to us): makers. This summer, Katie Couric will host a series called World 3.0, which will feature “disruptors, scientists, builders, innovators and social entrepreneurs who are “hacking” life as we know it.” We’re anticipating the show to be like our own Meet the Maker series come to life: an in-depth dive into why people love to make. Needless to say, we’re seriously stoked to watch it, and see how it brings further recognition to influencers who at the forefront of creative change.
Will you use Yahoo’s new service to stream concerts and more? Which programs are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments below.