With 71,000 people in attendance, the final Grateful Dead show easily broke the attendance record at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. In fact, each day surpassed the last, with more and more people getting in to witness the magic.
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As the shows were webcast on a variety of different sources, including the first-ever live concert streamed by YouTube, fans had no shortage of options for finding a way to experience the music.
In an interview with Mashable, Nate Parienti, president of Live Alliance, said, “We believe it’s already the largest online music pay-per-view event, once all the numbers are in it’ll be the largest music pay-per-view in history.”
They estimated that 175,000 people paid to watch the shows, which doesn’t account for a whole plethora of factors, including multiple people viewing the same stream, and all of the live simulcast options, like viewing parties at venues and movie theaters nationwide.
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The production of the shows was simply phenomenal, with 18 cameras in total, including one on a blimp and another wired over the field. There were TV trucks, satellite dishes and more, all to share the Dead’s music.
The 175,000 figure alone broke the record for most PPV streams purchased for one event… once the cable/satellite figures are added, there’s no telling how high that number will climb.