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The music livestreaming app Sessions, founded by former Pandora CEO Tim Westergren, has “shut down,” according to LinkedIn comments from multiple former employees. “Christmas came with the unexpected news that Sessions is going out of business,” one engineer wrote this month.
These comments were echoed elsewhere on LinkedIn. “This morning we were informed that Sessions would be closing their doors permanently,” another former employee wrote. A software engineer attributed the company’s closure to “difficult circumstances.” An artist shared a screenshot of an Instagram message from the platform saying that it had shuttered as of Dec. 19.
That artist tells Billboard he had money waiting for him on the platform when it shut down; others voiced similar complaints on social media. Westergren and former employees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sessions launched in April 2020. In interviews at the time, Westergren said that livestreaming lacked “marketing and monetization” opportunities. Seven months after launching, the company announced a $75 million fund to market artists’ livestreams. “The larger the fanbase [of an act using Sessions], the larger the marketing spend” to promote their performance, Westergren said.
Any level of artist could apply to stream a performance on Sessions, which said it hosted more than 500 acts a week across more than 200 countries. These acts could choose whether or not to charge a price for watching; viewers could also pay extra to send special emoticons. Sessions took 30% of all revenue brought in through the site, while 70% went to the artist. (Though the revenue split for the Sessions app was different: 40% to the artist, 30% to Apple for its App Store tax, 30% to Sessions.) Westergren said that a professional musician could bring in more than $20,000 from a livestream performance, while amateurs could collect as much as $700.
Sessions was one of many livestreaming companies that launched when COVID-19 temporarily shuttered venues. “Every day, another livestreaming company joins the fray,” Westergren acknowledged in 2020. But as clubs and arenas re-opened, fans were eager to get back to live shows; in August, Live Nation announced that it had already sold more tickets in 2022 than it did in all of 2019. On top of that, 2022’s economic climate proved difficult for all sorts of tech companies; even behemoths like Meta laid off workers.
As former Sessions users began figuring out that the platform was no longer running, they commiserated on social media and looked for new places to try to find fans. “I’m going over to Twitch now,” one wrote on Instagram. “Good luck everyone.”
Nearly two years after Marc Anthony was forced to cancel his highly-anticipated “Una Noche” livestream concert at the last minute, the event’s promoter is now suing the streaming platform for causing the “complete and total failure.”
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles court, attorneys for Loud and Live Entertainment claimed that Maestro had assured the promoter that the platform’s technology could “automatically scale to accommodate the number of ticketholders” – more than 100,000 people worldwide.
But when the night of the April 17, 2021, concert came, Loud and Live says those same fans “stared at blank or frozen computer screens” as Maestro experienced what it later described as a “complete collapse of the streaming platform.”
“As a result of Maestro’s complete and total failure, Loud And Live — which paid Anthony a substantial guaranteed artist fee, promoted and backed the concert financially, and contracted with sponsors and vendors around the world — suffered significant economic losses, all of which were foreseeable to Maestro.”
“Una Noche” was supposed to be one of the biggest livestreamed shows of the pandemic era, headlined by Anthony — who fills soccer stadiums in Latin America — and joined by superstar Daddy Yankee as a guest performer. By showtime, more than 100,000 tickets had been sold.
As a streaming partner, Maestro was no novice. Prior to the Anthony concert, the platform had handled major shows like Billie Eilish’s October 2020 livestream and Melissa Etheridge’s successful EtheridgeTV series. But at 8 p.m. EST on April 17, as global fans logged on to watch Anthony perform, Maestro’s system failed. Despite frantic attempts to revive the stream, the concert never happened, and fans were left waiting for hours until learning the show was officially canceled.
“Una Noche” may have been the most high-profile concert livestream to fail, but it’s hardly the only one to experience problems. For instance, Justin Bieber’s 2021 New Year’s Eve livestream with T-Mobile was seriously delayed — almost missing East Coast celebrations — due to unexpected demand from more than 1.2 million T-Mobile customers.
Avoiding such debacles is more complicated than it looks. Unlike physical shows, which have seat selection and could sell out, livestreams offer little incentive to buy a ticket early or arrive ahead of time. This can lead to a surge in activity at the start of the event — the size of which is difficult, if not impossible, to predict and prepare for.
But in its new lawsuit, Loud and Live says those were concerns were well-known to Maestro — and that the company had promised to have the technology and the experience to deal with them.
“Although Maestro had represented to Plaintiff … that it had handled events much larger than Anthony’s, and expressly warrantied that its platform would ‘automatically scale’ to meet Loud And Live’s needs (whether it had 500 viewers or millions), Maestro failed to stream even one minute of the show,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “Maestro’s misrepresentations regarding its technological capabilities induced Loud and Live to engage and rely on Maestro.”
In legal terms, Loud and Live says that Maestro’s failures breached the contract the two companies signed. It also says the streamer violated the promises that the streaming platform had made about the capabilities of its technology — meaning it breached its “express warranty” and made a “negligent misrepresentation” to Loud and Live.
Read the entire complaint here:
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Monday Night Football is in full swing! The Chicago Bears will go up against the New England Patriots on Monday (Oct. 24) at 8:15 p.m. ET, and even if you don’t have cable, there are plenty of ways to watch NFL games without spending a fortune.
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To make the process a little easier, we put together some of the better options for Monday Night Football and other NFL games. Read on for a schedule of upcoming MNF games, plus ways to watch and stream live and on-demand (with and without cable).
Monday Night Football: Games, Dates & Time
Monday Night Football began on Sept. 9 and will continue into January 2023. ESPN enlisted the help of DJ Marshmello to remix the MNF theme song.
So far, this year’s MNF matchups have featured the Denver Broncos vs. Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans vs. Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings vs. Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys vs. NY Giants, and the Los Angeles Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers.
The Bears will play the Patriots on Monday, followed by the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns on Oct. 31. Most of the aforementioned games will broadcast on ESPN, EPSN2 and ESPN Deportes, but a couple of the scheduled games will air on ABC as well. See the full 2022 MNF schedule here.
How to Watch Monday Night Football Without Cable
Gone are the days of simply switching channels to catch all of your favorite NFL games, and it can be hard to keep track of which games are streaming on which platforms. For example, Prime Video is the streaming home for Thursday Night Football, while Sunday Night Football games are available on NBC and Peacock, and some Monday Night Football games will simulcast on ESPN+.
That said, while there are different ways to watch football games from your TV, phone, laptop or computer, the price will vary depending on which platform that you choose.
With ESPN+, you’ll get access to football and more for $9.99 a month (or $13.99 a month to bundle with Disney+ and Hulu). Watch the NFL, college football, soccer, MLB, NBA, NHL, UFC 279, PGA Tour, Top Rank, PLL Playoffs, Premiere League, La Liga, cricket and other sporting events on ESPN+. You can also binge dozens of sports series and TV shows, and original content such as PPV fights, and the entire 30 for 30 series, which includes The Captain, Tom Brady: Man in the Arena, Al Davis vs. The NFL, Vick, Be Like Water, Breakaway, More Than An Athlete with Michael Strahan, and Our Time Baylor Basketball.
ESPN+
$9.99/month
The Rams and 49ers game streamed live on ESPN+, but Monday’s Bears vs. Patriots game will broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes. The game will begin at 8:15 p.m. ET/5:15 p.m. PT. Monday Night Countdown pre-game coverage will begin at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
Other Ways to Watch Monday Night Football Without Cable
There are several other affordable options to watch sports and more. For example, FuboTV, Vidgo, Direct TV Stream and Sling TV start at around $20-$70 for live and on-demand streaming, including ESPN and other sports channels, in addition to DVR recording.
Fubo Pro
$69.99/month after 7-day free trial
You’ll get a free trial with Direct TV Stream and Fubo TV, which means that you can watch football games for free for up to a week. You can also watch games on YouTube TV and NFL+, the latter of which starts at $4.99/month (or $39.99/year) after a 7-day free trial. With NFL+, football fans can watch or listen to games live and on-demand, plus enjoy recaps and more.
NFL+
$4.99/month after free 7-day trial
Another money-saving option: Hulu + Live TV is $69.99 a month for 75+ channels in edition to ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+, and DVR storage.
Want to stream from outside of the U.S.? With ExpressVPN you can access ESPN+, Hulu, and other streaming platforms.