*By Conor White*
During the bitter months of winter, music-lovers may dream of summer festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Governors Ball.
But actually planning trips to those festivals is another matter entirely ー and an expensive one, at that.
Enter LiveXLive, a platform that brings festivals and other live events to music enthusiasts who can't afford to attend in-person.
"We set out to take the playbook from ESPN, to create the next generation MTV," founder Robert Ellin told Cheddar Thursday. "And then add the community and social components of it to give the consumer the most immersive experience while they watch a live event."
LiveXLive has already streamed 20 events in 125 countries to the tune of more than 45 million views. The company's next event is iHeartRadio's ALTer Ego Festival through a new partnership with the entertainment giant.
Ellin said the possibilities for his company are immeasurable.
"We gave them an opportunity to partner and curate a brand new revenue stream for the entire music industry," he said.
The new partnership with iHeartMedia should only boost LiveXLive's ($LIVX) already-rapid growth. The company now has over 650,000 paying subscribers and more than 1.2 million active users, with almost 30,000 new subscribers a month.
While it might seem counterintuitive for festivals to partner with a platform that allows users to watch events from their couches, Ellin argues it's actually a mutually beneficial arrangement.
"You can watch it on TV but you'd still rather be at the live event," he said. "We're driving more people to these events."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/livexlive-partnering-with-iheartmedia-to-stream-festivals).
The Tony Awards on Sunday lured 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years. CBS says Monday that Nielsen data shows the telecast — hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo — scored a 38% increase over last year’s 3.53 million viewers. That’s the largest audience for the Tonys since 2019, when the telecast that year nabbed 5.4 million viewers and “Hadestown” was crowned best new musical. The latest version also had to compete with the second game of the NBA Finals, between the Thunder and Pacers,
After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during a developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology.
Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel last December, Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and expressed that killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming."
Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.
Midea is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million of its popular U and U+ Smart air conditioners because pooled water in the units may not drain fast enough, leading to mold growth.