U2’s venture into the Web 2.0 world appears to have come off without a hitch as an estimate audience in the hundreds of thousands tuned into the band’s live performance at the Rose Bowl concert stream on YouTube.
The concert, believed to a be a world-first and which kicked off at 3pm Sydney time today (October 26), was billed as “one of the world's biggest bands prepares to perform on the world's largest stage via live webcast".
“YouTube and U2 have joined forces to live stream U2's performance this Sunday at The Rose Bowl Stadium. Don't miss the live webcast!” the band’s U2 channel page on YouTube reads.
In classic Bono-form, the band’s singer asked the crowd cheekily: “What time is it in the world? Sydney, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo and Morocco?
“True pioneers in space…Thanks to America and the world watching. Seven continents!”
The concert can be viewed here and will be rebroadcast following the event.
During the event it is understood YouTube limited the bitrate available to viewers; a 200Kbps rate was experienced with a connection speed of 32kbps during the event.
The event was also accompanied by a live Twitter stream which received thousands of posts, many noting the global availability of live media thanks to the Internet.
User rWilliamr wrote: “google has endless bandwidth. Are they handling this themselves? Akamai maybe? Aliens?”
phxazlaura wrote “YouTube Twitter Gadget is a very cool feature. I think U2 and YouTube are showing us a glimpse of the future.”
lamamadelmuerto wrote “This is history. Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the true convergence of media, music and technology”
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