Webcasts of gigs by U2 and The National have shown YouTube’s livestreaming ambitions, but now they have been confirmed. Google’s video site is running a two-day trial with four of its content partners to stream live shows and footage. The company says this is an ‘alpha test’, and plans to eventually open the platform up to all its content partners – including music. That means bigger artists will be able to use YouTube to stream gigs, although there are few details about likely costs, and how (or whether) artists will be able to charge for such streams. Still, YouTube getting serious about livestreaming could be bad news for companies like Ustream and Livestream, who’ve been working with music industry clients for some time but lack Google’s resources.Source: TechCrunch
YouTube to launch livestreaming platform for content partners
