YouTube is heavily promoting exclusive Coachella streaming coverage starting next week. The headline news is the platform’s multi-view experience for the two-week festival (which sports fans will already be familiar with). The question we get from this announcement is, who wants to watch several different artists at the same time – when you can only listen to one?
The multi-view experience lets you watch up to four stages simultaneously and choose which one to listen to: This is exactly how multi-view works during March Madness, an NFL game, or any other sporting event. Here’s how YouTube promotes the feature: “Two of your favorite bands performing on different stages at the same time? No problem, Multiview lets you and your friends watch two shows at the same time through the YouTube app on your TV , at no additional cost.”
Maybe I was born in the wrong generation and have too long an attention span, but who wants to see an artist perform and not listen to it? This is what happens during the three stages when you don’t listen. Wouldn’t it be better to see the one you heard? And then when you can listen to other people’s shows as well, can you have their shows on demand?
Sports multiview makes sense because there are scores to keep track of, as well as timeouts, halftimes, and blowouts to shift your focus to another game. You don’t need to listen to NBA games to follow the ball. (Depending on the reviewer, you might not want to listen.) This is primarily a visual experience; the audio is secondary.
But music, even when played live, with all the light shows, smoke machines and dancing, is still first and foremost an aural experience. If you have multiple artists you like playing at the same time, you still can’t (and don’t want to) hear multiple artists at the same time. In YouTube’s multiview, you can select one stage to listen to and the rest… watch them sing and dance silently in a small box, alongside two other silent performances. yeah?
It sounds like a solution in search of a problem – YouTube taking its existing technology (which, to be fair, works well for sports) and applying it to music festivals. Never mind, it doesn’t make much sense.
Confusing rants aside, YouTube will have 6 live feeds to switch between (but again, only 4 at a time in multiple views). These include Sonora on the first weekend and Yuma on the second weekend. This year’s headliners include Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt and Tyler, the Creator.
In between performances, YouTube will feature “special edits” from live artists. After each night’s final game, the Coachella channel on YouTube will repeat the day’s action until the live broadcast returns the next day. This sounds like a better way to catch up on scenes you didn’t see live.
The event will be held April 12-14 and April 19-21 in Indio, California, about 130 miles east of Los Angeles. You can watch it on the Coachella channel on YouTube.
