Santa Monica, CA (Top40 Charts/ Recording Academy) For the second year in a row, music fans worldwide will have the unprecedented opportunity to experience and participate in the color and excitement leading up to GRAMMY Sunday through GRAMMY Live - a real-time, innovative three-day online broadcast of the VIP events leading up to the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 13. Available on both GRAMMY.com (http:/www.grammy.com/live) and on YouTube (www.youtube.com/TheGRAMMYs), the road to Music's Biggest Night begins on Friday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. PT and runs through Sunday, Feb. 13, featuring video, photos, blogging, tweets and retweets, as well as official news reports and personalized updates from GRAMMY Live hosts actor/comedian Ben Gleib, TV/Web personality Shira Lazar, and veteran broadcast music journalist John Norris.
"GRAMMY Live has evolved into a truly engaging online experience that takes users beyond the Sunday telecast and behind the velvet rope," said Peter Anton, The Recording Academy's Vice President of Digital Media. "The Recording Academy is proud to partner with AEG Digital Media, YouTube, and our sponsor TurboTax to bring GRAMMY Live to music fans worldwide. We are thrilled to provide an online only experience enabling fans to interact with their favorite GRAMMY moments, artists, events, and more, for three very exciting days."
Exclusive behind-the-scenes GRAMMY cams will give the audience an insider's view into some of the hottest GRAMMY Week events, including the Social Media Rock Star Summit; MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute honoring Barbra Streisand; Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception; Pre-GRAMMY Gala featuring the 2011 GRAMMY Salute To Industry Icons honoring David Geffen; and all the action on GRAMMY Sunday, including the 53rd GRAMMY Awards red-carpet arrivals, the Pre-Telecast Ceremony and the official GRAMMY Celebration after-party. Additional behind-the-scenes footage will offer viewers a "dual-screen" experience, complementing the CBS GRAMMY telecast with red-carpet coverage, backstage interviews, exclusive photo sessions with winners (with renowned photographer Danny Clinch), press room question-and-answer sessions, and past GRAMMY Moments.
GRAMMY Live Technology Partners
AEG Digital Media (www.aegdigitalmedia.com) is partnering with The Recording Academy once again to live stream all of the action. Using their home-grown feature-rich Tremelo Player, AEGDM allows superior performance including multiple camera-angle viewing options that can be accessed on GRAMMY.com and YouTube - making for greater functionality for event sponsor TurboTax-maker Intuit (www.turbotax.intuit.com).
GRAMMY Live also leverages Akamai's (www.akamai.com) global distribution HD network for live streaming and video on demand to power the extensive live and on-demand streaming programming of events. In addition, AEG Digital Media also will deploy its social media aggregation tool "The Hawk," which will allow complete and unified messaging from the official GRAMMY blog team, celebrity and artist tweeters, and fans all over the world. The Hawk will aggregate and present all messaging around the streaming experience, providing the ultimate digital engagement for Music's Biggest Night.
LiveU (www.liveu.tv) has also returned as a GRAMMY Live partner by enabling The Recording Academy to stream live footage without being "hard-wired" thanks to mobile backpacks. The backpacks bond Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile wireless services together (3G and 4G LTE/WiMax) and utilize a LiveU proprietary antenna, which allows HD-quality video transmission and helps overcome spotty connectivity in low-coverage or congested areas. This technology also is utilized by hundreds of leading news, entertainment, and sports broadcasters in the U.S and over 60 other countries.
GRAMMY Bloggers
The GRAMMYs' annual Blog Program on GRAMMY.com has set the bar high for this year's show by featuring blogs from numerous first-time GRAMMY nominees that reflect on their emotional reactions to their nominations. Other participants include Rolling Stone contributing editor, Huffington Post blogger and Emmy-nominated TV and GRAMMY writer David Wild; and a variety of genre-specific community music bloggers from across the country. The Blog Program reflects only one aspect of the revamped GRAMMY.com, which now empowers fans to view, share and discuss hours of archived video footage, news posts, and photos. A live countdown clock to the telecast also appears on the site and is available as a widget.
GRAMMY.com Digital Partners
The Recording Academy has partnered with the most progressive online broadcast companies and leveraged the best of both open source and proprietary technologies to deliver a cohesive, exciting and more enriching user experience for GRAMMY.com and GRAMMY.org, including Drupal (www.drupal.com), Lullabot (www.lullabot.com), Ooyala (www.ooyala.com), Rackspace (www.rackspace.com), and Simply New (www.simplynew.com).
About The Recording Academy
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards - the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music - The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization's social networks on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thegrammys), Twitter (www.twitter.com/thegrammys), and YouTube (www.youtube.com/thegrammys).
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