This weekend, tens of thousands of music fans will strap on their mud boots and floppy hats and head down to Tom Lee Park for the Beale Street Music Festival. There’s a lot to love about the modern music festival: The opportunity to get exposed to new sounds, the possibility of seeing a superstar like Paul McCartney, and the short-term camaraderie you develop with a hundred thousand like-minded individuals.
But festivals are expensive, and you’d like to find a place to pee in peace. As Apple TVs and Rokus have brought streaming video to your living room flatscreen the past few years, music festival webcasting has come of age. And while the Music Fest isn’t webcasting as of yet, it’s now possible to watch almost all of the lineup of at least 100 music festivals live on the web. YouTube has some of the biggest festivals, such as the just-completed Coachella, the electronic music festivals Tomorrowland and Ultra, and Austin City Limits. For 2015, Bonnaroo left YouTube to sign on with the Red Bull TV app, which has also landed Lollapalooza. Some festivals, such as Pitchfork, go exclusively through their website, which can cause a hassle in getting it from your computer to your TV. The iTunes Festival, on the other hand, was created with streaming in mind, and is integrated into the Apple music player.
