TuneIn, the audio streaming app and network that corrals real radio stations from around the world, along with NFL, NBA and MLB broadcasts in one place, has secured the exclusive audio streaming rights to a slew of the top U.S. music festivals, TheWrap has learned.
Hangout Music Fest, Outside Lands Music, Firefly, the Newport Folk Festival and Seattle’s Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festivals are part of a multi-year deal that includes the launch of stand-alone festival radio stations on the TuneIn platform.
The live-hosted, hand-curated, 24-7 channels (à la Apple Music) dubbed TuneIn Festival VIP Radio, launched today (May 16). Unlike the festivals, the stations will run for months.
“Each of the festivals that we’ve partnered with are world class tastemakers in the booking of incredible lineups,” Charles Raggio, Sr. Director Music Partnerships & Branded Content of TuneIn, said in a statement to TheWrap.
“Live music is the heartbeat of every music fan, so it’s exciting for us to use our platform to amplify the efforts of these fests and offer music festival experiences and exclusive artist content to millions of monthly listeners throughout the summer,” he added.
First up is Goldenvoice’s surging beach front Hangout Music Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this weekend.
While fans in the south will have their feet in the sand or be swimming by the stages (literally), global fans will be able to listen to festival headliners like Dillon Francis (who dominated at Coachella), The Head and the Heart, Band of Horses, future “Where are they now?” contender Marshmello, and the cultishly-beloved RÜFÜS DU SOL via TuneIn.
TuneIn expects eight to 10 full sets to be streamed per day from each festival.
The patchwork of festival partners is notable because TuneIn struck deals with festivals on both sides of the U.S. music festival duopoly: AEG Presents and Live Nation.
The former co-owns Goldenvoice and produces Hangout, Delaware’s Firefly Festival (June) and Bumbershoot in Seattle (September), which are included in this deal. (Other AEG Presents festivals include Coachella, Stagecoach, FYF (LA, July), Panorama (NYC, July), and last weekend’s heavy metal fest Carolina Rebellion in Charlotte, North Carolina, amongst others.)
Live Nation will be represented by its stake in Outside Lands festival streamed under this deal (San Francisco in August). The partnership was planned using data collected during the 2016 festival season including Live Nation’s Meadows Music and Arts Festival in New York.
Outside of this deal, Live Nation’s festival tentpoles include Bonaroo (Tennessee, June), EDC (Las Vegas, June), Lollapalooza (Chicago, August), and Austin City Limits (October). Red Bull TV has the video livestream rights to all of them. Audio is separate.
“We believe this service is great for the fans who are traveling to the festivals and want to get a head start on their favorite bands,” Kim Hawkins, AEG’s Sr. Director of Partnerships, told TheWrap. “[The channels are also] for those who can’t attend and can use TuneIn to listen to some of the events live. Additionally, as a part of this partnership, our mutual brand partners can expand beyond the festival grounds and get exposure through a different media platform.”
Despite the TuneIn consolidation, the market for festival livestream rights remains dynamic and decentralized. Youtube, Facebook, SiriusXM, Red Bull TV, TuneIn, Pandora, and Verizon’s Go90 app have all secured rights to major festivals mentioned above during the previous year.
For TuneIn, the Festival VIP channels join TuneIn’s 100,000 audio channels, serving 60 million monthly active users. Comcast Ventures, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and Icon Ventures are amongst the backers of the San Francisco-based service.
Alessandra Ambrosio, Shanina Shaik and a squad of the faces of "VS" flew out to the desert in a helicopter and then set up shop at the "VS Angel Oasis," a mansion estate with a lake by the fields.
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Bebe Rexha
Models Martha Hunt, Romee Strijd and Josephine Skriver surround the "Me, Myself, & I" singer at the VS Oasis on Friday afternoon.
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Birthday Girls
But did they eat the cake? Alessandra Ambrosio (April 11) and Josephine Skriver (April 14) had a joint birthday celebration.
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Freida Pinto and Emily Ratajkowski
Over at the festival, the "Slumdog Millionaire" star and the model must have bought their tickets really early to get that seat. H&M's Interactive Oasis showed off their clothing collection, "H&M Loves Coachella."
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The most Instagrammed thing in the world for the next three days is this: the paper machete donkey in a party hat. It's this year's signature art installation.
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Republic Records' Hyde Away
On Friday afternoon, the cool kid label had a poolside showcase in Thermal. Posing here, EVP of Republic Records Wendy Goldstein, Hailee Steinfeld, Universal Pictures' president of film music and licensing Mike Knobloch and Chairman and CEO of Republic Records Monte Lipman.
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Travis Scott
The 24-year-old Houstonite was the favorite of the Gen-Z crowd. His Kendrick Lamar collaboration "Goosebumps" racked up 1.9 million views on Friday, the day it was released.
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Mac Miller
Miller's wall-to-wall crowd in the Sahara Tent extended 30 yards out the back during his early evening set.
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Yara Shahidi
H&M's oasis on the festival grounds featured a garage, living room and patio with a pop-up shop for on-the-spot wardrobe changes.
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Odell Beckham Jr. and Amber Rose
NFL players' off-season coincides nicely with the spring festival. The NY Giants star and Amber Rose were the head-turning duo at Nylon's "Midnight Garden" party on Friday night.
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Expanded VIP Area
Coachella increased its Main VIP area to make it twice as wide this year.
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They now have cocktail waitresses serving drinks in that Main Stage VIP, a game changer for cutting down on lines.
How do they remember who ordered what? "We look at hats and shoes," the part-time actresses/servers told The Party Report.
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The Main Stage visuals between sets blend into the mountain desertscape.
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Cameron Smoller and Hailee Steinfeld
The actress-singer also hit Nylon's bash where guests checked in for the festivities in an elementary school parking lot. They had to ride prom buses up to a house.
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Steinfeld had a full day. Earlier, she performed at her label Republic Records' showcase at the SBE Hyde Away with Aminė and Post Malone.
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Gigi Gorgeous
The self-made trans icon lit up the Nylon bash, where styling studios re-polished dusty festival goers with Batiste Dry Shampoo.
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Johnny Wujek
Katy Perry's star stylist DJ'd the bash, so there was Johnny on the turntables...
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...and Johnnie & Soda at the bottle service VIP tables.
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Ian Ziering and Erin Ziering
This bash was a lot cooler than "The Peach Pit."
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Dillon Francis
The newly independent prankster and producer (he just launched his IDGAFOS label) closed out the first day by headlining the Sahara tent with a blizzard of visuals from the opening beats of "Bun Up the Dance," his smash collaboration with Skrillex.
Instagram/jfmk1981
"I dressed up and wore a suit for you, Coachella!" Francis told the crowd. He last played here in 2014.
As TheWrap predicted, G-Eazy came out to join him for "Say Less." The finale included James Hersey for a winning version of "Coming Over."
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Steve Angello
The former member of Swedish House Mafia ended his set elevated on a pedestal. We're a few years past SHM's reign as the kings of EDM, but don't anybody tell him that. His tent was less crowded than Empire of the Sun or Francis' shows in the same space.
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Dania Ramirez and Christina Milian
The ladies hit CIROC's Summer Colada party in Palm Springs on Friday night.
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A$AP Ferg and the Influencer Class of 2017
A$AP Ferg hopped a party plane with influencers Amy Pham, Yovanna Ventura (@YoVentura, 5M followers) and Danielle Lombard on their way to the #RevolveHotel, one plank of the fashion retailer's all-encompassing weekend of festival events.
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Halsey
Meanwhile, the "Closer" singer filled up a party bus in L.A. and took a select few friends and fans to Palm Springs.
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Once there, Halsey gave personal styling sessions from a pop-up thrift shop...
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...and finally got to refresh with host Three Olives Vodka. This is the "before" picture...
And this is the "after."
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Aaron Paul
The former "Jesse Pinkman" and his wife Lauren rode Lyft out to the desert. The inseparable twosome actually met at Coachella years ago.
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Alessandra Ambrosio and Sara Sampaio
These two Victoria's Secret angels kicked off Revolve's astronomically large weekend of events across the Valley with a small dinner party at the Revolve Hotel takeover of the Arrive Hotel in Palm Springs on Thursday night.
They toasted their collaboration: Ale by Alessandra x REVOLVE.
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A$AP Ferg
Back on land, Ferg was ready for a weekend of activations that includes mutli-thousand person parties with Rick Ross, intimate dinners, late nights and private events with Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe.
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Shay Mitchell and Randy Jackson
Music innovators and notables gathered at industry conference Kaleidoscope on Thursday, a series of "Lawn Talks" with personalities like Mitchell and Jackson, Houlihan Lokey's Jim Zukin and Monster CEO Noel Lee. Delta Airlines and Tesloop sponsored the outdoor conversations.
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Water
A pallet city of water was staged behind the dance tent on Wednesday before the festival. It was 83 degrees as the gates were opened on Friday.
More pics from the scene in Indio to come...
Mikey Glazer
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See the scene in and around Indio from TheWrap Party Report’s Mikey Glazer
Victoria's Secret Angels
Alessandra Ambrosio, Shanina Shaik and a squad of the faces of "VS" flew out to the desert in a helicopter and then set up shop at the "VS Angel Oasis," a mansion estate with a lake by the fields.