VICE Teams with Live Nation for Digital Platform

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES: VICE and Live Nation Entertainment have teamed up to develop and launch a new digital content platform that will bring live music to millions of online and mobile audiences.

The joint venture will bring together Live Nation’s live music base and access to thousands of artists globally, with the creative and expert editorial expertise of VICE to bring the platform to all major markets across the world in nine different languages. The platform will deliver artist-driven live content. The brand will eventually feature hundreds of hours of originally produced content, including new long- and short-form video series, premium editorial franchises, live digital music experiences created collaboratively with artists, in-depth documentaries, as well as daily editorial content, and e-commerce and ticketing offerings. The platform will roll out across multiple screens, including mobile, web and TV in 2015.

Michael Rapino, Live Nation's CEO and president, said: “Shane and the VICE organization have proven to be the voice of this generation. Together with Live Nation’s platform, we are positioned to become the voice of live music by developing an artist-centric, 24/7 global music destination that enables artists to bring their creative vision to life in a new and rich online and mobile music ecosystem.”
 
Shane Smith, founder and CEO of VICE, added, "This partnership rethinks the live music experience, offering unprecedented access to the world's biggest stars and emerging artists, and groundbreaking content that will be distributed across the holy trinity of mobile, online and TV. Today the content world is in upheaval, with new brands being created in real time, and mainstream media seeing its audience migrate in record numbers. It's this de-stratification of the status quo that we find so exciting because that, combined with the lack of any real quality music programming out there, equals one hell of an opportunity. We think that this partnership will give VICE and Live Nation the unique ability to totally re-imagine music content on a global scale, and if that doesn't get your rocks off I don't know what will!"