Sydney Opera House and YouTube today announced a two-year agreement that will deliver 20 unique live performances over two years, beginning in 2013. The performances will be streamed on a new YouTube channel, Live at Sydney Opera House.

During the Vivid LIVE festival in 2012, the live streaming of Australian band The Temper Trap’s new album attracted 296,000 unique views; an audience 100 times greater than that which watched the live performance in the Concert Hall.

Over the last financial year, almost 1.4 million people bought tickets to 1,800 performances at the Opera House. The live streaming of The Temper Trap was just one of four performances streamed live during Vivid LIVE using YouTube technology that together generated 916,000 playbacks. The formalising of this partnership between Sydney Opera House and YouTube will exponentially increase the Opera House’s audience reach both locally and around the world.
The Opera House has a commitment to use digital platforms like YouTube to take its own experiences and content beyond the confines of Bennelong Point to people wherever they are, and provide a new worldwide level of engagement and participation with our brand.

Richard North, Head of Music Partnerships YouTube Australia & New Zealand said today: “Sydney Opera House is one of the most ambitious and truly innovative venues in the world. They have a long-standing commitment to using technology to democratise access to their incredible performances. Building on hugely successful events like YouTube Symphony Orchestra and Vivid LIVE 2012, this new, long-term partnership is going to open up even more of the Opera House’s events to our 800 million strong monthly audience, showcasing the best of Australia and the world, live on the world’s largest stage – YouTube.”

Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron added: “I am hugely excited that this partnership will allow the Opera House to deliver some of our finest performances live across Australia and the world. Online video is a major part of our strategy to ensure Opera House experiences are available to anyone, anywhere at any time. The past financial year saw our online video views experience 300% growth. Over the coming years we expect that the numbers watching on YouTube will match or exceed the 8.2 million who visit our precinct annually.”

People will be able to access live Opera House performances at a Sydney Opera House YouTube channel in the New Year. The first live streamed performance will be announced by Sydney Opera House early in 2013.

Sydney Opera House
The World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House welcomes over 8.2 million visitors on site every year and hosts 1,800 performances attended by 1.4 million people. It is one of the world’s busiest cultural precincts.

Sydney Opera House and Google
Sydney Opera House and Google have a creative and technical partnership, which started two and a half years ago and has seen ambitious and highly successful collaborations such as YouTube Symphony Orchestra and Vivid LIVE using FRONTROW.

The partnership succeeds as it’s grounded in an aligned vision to democratise creativity and in a shared ambition to move the web forward through innovation, and risky, audacious projects. It is a collaboration based on bravery.