The WOMADelaide world music festival
The streaming side of music
Musically a world away from the hard rock of Waters and Pink, WOMADelaide is a festival of what was once called traditional, folk or ethnic, but now world, music.
In March 2013, this means artists from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, such as Jamaican Jimmy Cliff, South Africans Hugh Masekela and the Soweto Gospel Choir, Spanish viola de gamba player Jordi Savallis and Tunisian oud player Dhafer Youssef.
A long way from strident electric guitars and amplifiers turned up to 11.
WOMAD - the World of Music, Arts & Dance - was founded by musician and ex-Genesis singer Peter Gabriel in 1982, with WOMADelaide, the Australian WOMAD festival, kicking off ten years later.
But while the festival music might draw on traditional forms of music, the IT behind it is as cutting edge as its louder brethren in Perth.
While festival organisers around Australia survive on paying punters turning up on the day to enjoy the music and the atmosphere, World of Music Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Adelaide has recognised that not everyone can attend the festival in South Australia and has decided to live stream selected performances in 2013.
“The live streaming is a way to further the reach of the festival and open up accessibility to those who usually would not be able to attend the festival,” A WOMADelaide spokesperson says. “It allows WOMADelaide to stream into houses across the country and the world, giving people access to a plethora of amazing music and dance from around the world.”
The live streaming will be provided by ISP Internode, which sponsors the Adelaide leg of the global festival.
Internode plans to live stream selected performances in high definition via its content delivery network (CDN) in March next year. The CDN is a network of servers spread across multiple locations designed to deliver content where high performance or high reliability are required.
Live streaming was first offered during the 2012 festival. According to Internode founder Simon Hackett, the streamed performances are fully rights-cleared, properly negotiated live performance recordings from, and in support of, the artists concerned.
“It’s a win-win in terms of exposure for the artists and the creation of content available online, both during and after the event, through the CDN,” he says.
However, WOMADelaide organisers say there are no plans to offer `at festival’ exclusive content on their smartphone for attendees as yet.
According to a WOMADelaide spokesperson, the company has a range of technology in place to interact and attract patrons to the festival and further extending their access to the event. This includes the development of a new website every year for the festival, which ensures that the content is always up-to-date and easily accessible.
“The website is also smartphone enabled for best viewing resolution on devices,” they say.
“We put out a smartphone app each year which is free to download and offers user access to timetables, tickets and artist information.”
In addition, festival organisers say that social media campaigns are a highly effective way of communicating with patrons. “We use a range of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and electronic newsletters.” On Twitter, the festival has 3408 followers while on Facebook it has 10,732 ‘likes’.
When head-banging fans morph into followers and likers, the age of a four-piece band singing and playing their hearts out on a minute sweaty stage in Hamburg has definitely come a long way.
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