My only hope, at this point, is that Xbox teams with Insomniac Events to give one of their productions this kind of treatment – preferably the “Electric Daisy Carnival.”
My Xbox One was working overtime this weekend. Between the World Cup coverage (and the BrazilNow app) and Bonnaroo, my Xbox was in a constant state of switching. In the time that I spent watching Bonnaroo, I have to say that the app was one of the best music festival apps I’ve seen so far on Xbox (even better than iHeartRadio and even better than their Live Events stuff).
The reason for this kind of kudos is that the Bonnaroo app acted more like a “Bonnaroo encyclopedia.” Before I could even get into live performances, I could watch backstage interviews, past performances, highlights from past days, exclusive acoustic shows, a history of Bonnaroo, and more. In fact, you could spend more time watching other things than the actual show. That’s a testament not only to Bonnaroo’s history, but to the depth of content that was given through this app.
When you *did* watch a live performance, you were treated to a high quality stream. Actually, it was high quality streams. You were given two streams that were usually offering two different styles of music. It was fantastic that choosing a live stream brought you to that performance, almost instantly. On one channel could be hip-hop, while the other channel showed country. It was the kind of variety that made the app fun to use. I especially enjoyed how I could go through the stream schedule and choose which artists I want to be notified when they start performing, making sure I didn’t miss a beat.
If there was a downside to this app, it was that it couldn’t be snapped to the side. Like I said, World Cup was going on and I would have at least liked to snap a Bonnaroo stream while watching some of the World Cup action. Of course I could snap TV instead, but snapping Bonnaroo should’ve at least been an option.
You want another downside? Where was Xbox Music? Skype was involved. Surface was involved. Xbox was involved. Where was Xbox Music? This is where an Xbox Music twitter account (at the very least) would’ve helped since people could be discovering new artists and Xbox Music could’ve pointed folks towards their marketplace and service. In the app, there could’ve been a way to link artists to their spot in the catalog of the Xbox Music app on Xbox One. Little touches like that go a long way to bring your brand’s awareness and help people dive more into the crates of artists that they find interesting.
For me, as a music junkie, I came away from Bonnaroo with some new discoveries and some rekindling of old favorites. I had noted, on Twitter, that I could get lost easily in a festival like this one, and I’m glad they partnered with Xbox to stream it.
When I think back to past live performances that were streamed through Xbox, particularly iHeartRadio, I can help but give the gold star to the Bonnaroo app. This was the way to do it. This was the way to present your show, its history, its people, its atmosphere. Frankly, this app sets a standard by which future collaborations should look towards.
So kudos to everyone involved with getting this app out there. While, waiting to actually use it was interesting (there was a crazy long gap between the lineup announcement and the actual show), what we were given this past weekend was a gift to music lovers and people who couldn’t make the Bonnaroo festival.
Now, how about doing this for the Electric Daisy?
By the way, this Friday’s Music Mix will feature some bands I discovered watching Bonnaroo.
