YouTube streams Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert for free
David Farnor | On 11, Apr 2020
YouTube is streaming its new Coachella documentary for free from this weekend.
The video giant and culture festival have long worked together as officially partners, with the video giant set to exclusively live-stream the festival for both weekends once again this year. Now, with the event cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, YouTube has instead released its previously announced documentary about the festival for free.
Two decades in the making, Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert opens up the vault for the very first time to present the legendary performances and behind-the-scenes stories that shaped the seminal music festival. The film provides a rare look at Coachella’s colorful beginning, presents exclusive, never-before-seen footage, interviews, and key performances from some of the biggest names in music.
The documentary arrives as Radiohead are also releasing footage of their old concerts for free on YouTube every week in a move to keep music fans entertained during the lockdown. YouTube has also made other originals available for free outside of its Premium paywall, in a similar move to Apple TV+, which has temporarily made some originals available for free, and Amazon, which has done the same for kids’ TV show’s to keep families occupied and distracted.
You can watch the Coachella documentary below:
YouTube announces Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert
9th January 2020
YouTube is teaming up with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for a new documentary marking the event’s 20th anniversary.
YouTube and Coachella have long worked together as officially partners, with the video giant exclusively live-streaming the festival for both weekends once again this year. Now they’re going one step further, with a YouTube Original documentary in the works.
Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert opens up the vault for the first time to present the performances and behind-the-scenes stories that have shaped the music festival over two decades. The film gives a rare look at Coachella’s colourful beginning, presents never-before-seen footage and interviews, and features key performances from some of the biggest names in music, including Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Travis Scott, BLACKPINK, LCD Soundsystem, Rage Against The Machine, Pixies, Swedish House Mafia, Jane’s Addiction, Björk, The White Stripes, Madonna, Moby, Beck, Radiohead and more.
The documentary marks YouTube’s growing focus on music to drive its YouTube Premium subscription offering, with a Justin Bieber docuseries also debuting this year. Indeed, YouTube Premium subscribers will receive exclusive Coachella perks for the 2020 festival, including access to a members-only allocation of passes for purchase. As general on-sale Weekend 1 passes are sold out, YouTube Premium members are one of the only groups with access to this limited supply. YouTube continues to take the magic of Coachella beyond the Indio desert and into the homes and phones of millions of people around the world, providing a global stage for artists and fans to connect with live stream performances from headliners to some of the biggest artists on the rise.
The announcement comes on the heels of Coachella’s official 2020 lineup. The film will premiere on 31st March 2020.