This year’s Coachella Music Festival’s official YouTube livestream will feature technology familiar to many fans. Multiview, which allows viewers to watch multiple live streams on the same screen while listening to one audio source, is available to viewers of any festival live stream on the YouTube TV app without a YouTube TV subscription, the platform announced Thursday.
Just like the multiviewer on NFL Sunday Ticket allows viewers to watch four different games simultaneously, this feature at Coachella will allow viewers to watch up to four different stages simultaneously. Viewers can switch between audio sources and jump in and out of full-screen view. There are a total of six feeds (or six stages) to choose from. This year the festival will be held over two weekends: April 12-14 and April 19-21.
YouTube and Goldenvoice, producers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, have entered into an exclusive 12-year content partnership, giving fans free access to both weekends of the iconic music festival on its official YouTube channel. YouTube pays a licensing fee to exclusively broadcast the festival and then profits from the advertising revenue generated by such noteworthy events. Performances like Beyonce’s two-hour Beychella performance in 2018 or Blackpink’s “Typa Girl” performance last year can attract millions of views and circulate on social media for weeks.
Given that Coachella 2024 sales are the slowest in more than a decade, vulture points out that this year’s festival is really hoping to attract extra attention. Nearly four months after going on sale, tickets for the second weekend are still available for purchase on the Coachella official website, and general admission and VIP tickets for both weekends are still available for purchase on third-party resale websites. This is highly unusual for a high-capacity music festival in Indio, California. Tickets for both weekends often sell out within hours or days.
Some theories to explain this year’s lackluster ticket sales include high prices, the quality of this year’s lineup and general festival fatigue. Regardless, a sizeable portion of the Coachella crowd is absent from the festivities this year, whether due to a lack of enthusiasm or a lack of cash. Whether this will attract more still-curious YouTube viewers to Coachella remains to be seen.