Live Streaming Lollapalooza!

This weekend Lollapalooza music festival will play live in Chicago’s downtown Grant Park.

Fortunately for the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of fans who cannot attend the event in person, YouTube will also provide live streaming video of all the performances.

This is a very big deal, both for Lollapalooza, which has struggled in the past with declining interest, and YouTube, which is trying to boost interest in its new live streaming service.

If you are among the folks who wish you could be in Chicago watching Lollapalooza, but are stuck at home mowing the grass, relax. YouTube has got you covered!

This weekend, the Lollapalooza music festival will unfold in Chicago’s downtown Grant Park—and on computers around the world. YouTube will stream live video of performances by Coldplay, Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket and dozens of other bands.

Live webcasting represents the next act for music festivals, the biggest of which draw hundreds of thousands of fans. Video sites are eager to tap into the festivals’ loyal fan bases. In June, music-video service Vevo webcast from Bonnaroo, capturing members of Arcade Fire, the Strokes and others dripping sweat in high definition in the Tennessee heat. YouTube, which had Bonnaroo rights the previous year, laid claim to Coachella in April, drawing a remote audience approaching that of the British royal wedding; the wedding garnered 72 million streams on YouTube the same month.

To webcast Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits festival in September, YouTube bought live streaming rights from the events’ producer, C3 Presents, which is orchestrating the shoots on site with funding from sponsors Dell and Advanced Micro Devices. Neither C3 or YouTube would discuss the price of the deal, but people familiar with the market say that video sites typically pay major festivals between $250,000 and $1 million for live streaming rights.

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