Culture
Electric Blockaloo, a music festival with over 850 artists, is happening in Minecraft
Organizers of the festival have taken steps to make sure all artists get paid when their music is played.
The Minecraft music festival Electric Blackaloo has announced its full lineup, which boasts a whopping 850 plus artists. Among the headliners are Steve Aoki, Deadmau5, and, yes, Paris Hilton. Their sets will stream through Java and Bedrock versions of the game over four days, from June 25 through June 28.
Besides the setting, what's most noteworthy is the steps organizers are taking to ensure artists get paid if their music is played. Rave Family, which is producing the festival, is partnering with the streaming platform Mixcloud to ensure artists are properly compensated.
"We knew that in order to create a sustainable digital music event platform, we had to take care of that," Rave Family CEO Jackie McGuire told The Hollywood Reporter. "With their advanced content ID system and unique music licenses, Mixcloud has been a great partner and we are excited to be leading the movement to pay artists fairly."
65 stages — The four-day festival will utilize 65 different stages as envisioned by participating labels and artists. Each will include different activities and minigames, and a Discord chat room will allow festival-goers to chat with each other during the event. For a full look at the lineup, check out the poster below with incredibly small font:
How to attend — Access to Electric Buckaloo requires purchasing a $10 ticket, of which 5 percent of the profits will be donated to charities including Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project, and ByeByePlastic. The festival will also be encouraging participants to register to vote through a partnership with Headcount.
This isn't the first digital concert, of course. Minecraft has used its platform to host digital music events for years, and earlier this year Fornite hosted a Travis Scott concert (with a heap of accompanying merch). With the coronavirus showing limited signs of abating, it looks like online concerts going to be the norm, at least for 2020. At least at the end of a virtual concert, you can crawl straight into your bed. So there's that.