LOS ANGELES, June 4 (Reuters) - Concertgoers won't have to leave their homes to enjoy the "Live Music Day Festival," the biggest online-only event of its kind, music networks MTV, VH1 and CMT said on Tuesday.
The 24-hour virtual concert is set to kick off at 7 p.m. EDT
on June 19 and will feature performances by more than 50 bands
and artists spanning rock, indie, pop, R&B and folk. Acts
include Hanson, Atlas Genius, Labrinth, Langhorne Slim and Kate
Nash.
The performances, accompanied by the fan-picked O Music
Awards, will be streamed live from Viacom’s offices in New York,
Nashville and Los Angeles. The Roots drummer Questlove will
provide beats during the festival in a 24-hour “drum-a-thon.”
Viewers will be able to watch the entire show via computers,
laptops, tablets and smartphones. They also have the option of
selecting only the acts and awards they want to see.
“We’ve created the first-of-its-kind music festival that’s
both connecting artists and fans and allowing them to
participate in the awards and festival in new ways,” Dermot
McCormack, head of connected content for Viacom Music, said in a
statement.
Categories in the third annual O Music Awards include Best
Web-Born Artist, Fan Army FTW (For The Win) and Must-Follow
Artist on Twitter. R&B singer Frank Ocean and rocker Beck lead
the awards with two nominations each.
At the first O Music awards in Las Vegas in 2011, rapper
Chiddy of rap duo Chiddy Bang set a Guinness World Record for
the “longest freestyle rap” and “longest marathon rap” after
performing for more than nine consecutive hours.
MTV and its sister music channels VH1 and CMT are part of
Viacom Inc.
