Texas Music Festivals Jump Aboard Online Streaming Bandwagon

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Music festivals in Texas and elsewhere are booming. So is an alternative to paying soaring ticket prices to spend a weekend packed among 50,000 or more typically sweaty concertgoers — watching the performances online for free.

At the Austin City Limits Music Festival, about a third of the nearly 130 bands on a lineup that includes the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Black Keys and Jack White will have their sets broadcast on YouTube.

It's a record for the three-day festival that starts Friday. Just six years ago organizers began webcasting with a single feed and struggled to persuade artists to even participate.

Austin City Limits marks the unofficial end of the big-festival calendar in the U.S. for 2012.