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Vevo’s new Watch Party Live is Twitch meets Turntable.fm for music artists

Vevo’s new Watch Party Live is Twitch meets Turntable.fm for music artists

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Fans can watch an artist-curated music video playlist

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Vevo’s Watch Party
Image via Vevo

Vevo today launched Watch Party Live, a new, multiple-screen live stream experience geared toward connecting musicians with fans through their music videos.

Vevo initially launched Watch Party in March as a Turntable.fm-like way to watch music videos with friends. Within Watch Party, users can add tracks, vote on songs to listen to next, and also chat with each other. Whoever is hosting the Watch Party room acts as a moderator, and has final say on what gets played.

Watch Party Live will take the Watch Party experience one step further, with a new picture-in-picture live video chat that allows artists to interact directly with fans as videos play. During each Watch Party Live session, the artist will cue up videos, and talk with fans and answer questions during the live stream. Artists can manipulate the screen in a variety of ways, like minimizing or maximizing their video stream or the music video itself. They will also have control over the volume, so they can talk with fans while the music videos are playing, or simply watch alongside them. Essentially, the artist becomes the Watch Party Live room’s moderator / host. Fans can chat or ask the artist questions through Watch Party’s existing chat function.

While artists interacting with fans via live streams has been around, Watch Party Live’s addition of picture-in-picture is an interesting new take that allows both artist and fan to experience a piece of content together. It’s the same model that Twitch has gained popularity for with the gaming community, and it seems Vevo is attempting the same with music.

Kid Ink will be the first artist to take part in Watch Party Live, and future confirmed artists include Grace Vanderwaal and Becky G. You can participate in tonight’s Watch Party Live at 6:30PM ET on Vevo’s website.