Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson speaks at a press conference following practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 22, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida
*Rapper 50 Cent will headline a South By Southwest concert on March 11 that will be live-streamed via Hang w/, a mobile app that’s being used by dozens of celebrities to broadcast their daily activities and chat with fans.
The 38-year-old Grammy Award winning hip hop artist is also an investor in Hang With Inc., the Southern California company that created the app, which has been downloaded more than 1 million times since its launch in March 2013.
“I’m excited to be able to bring my fans behind the scenes and give the opportunity to those who couldn’t make it a chance to experience a concert at South By Southwest,” said 50, real name Curtis Jackson.
The concert is set for 8 p.m. at the 1100 Warehouse in Austin during the “crossover” night between the last day of SXSW’s Interactive festival and the start of its music events. The rapper recently announced that his new album, “Animal Ambition,” will be released June 3, with the pre-sale beginning March 18.
The artist has been steadily using Hang w/ since he became a minority investor in the company, switching it on for a few minutes as he attends New York Knicks games, for example. Fans who follow him on the app are notified when he starts a new live broadcast.
Timbaland, another minority investor in the company, has also used the app to live stream portions of his concerts.
So far, Hang w/ has broadcast 3 million live events, said Andrew Maltin, Chief Executive of Hang With Inc., based in Fountain Valley, Calif. While some of those are initiated by celebrities such as Kaskade, Cheech and Chong, Lucy Hale and Soulja Boy, most are created by average people.
“There was a guy who broadcast himself this morning brushing his teeth and talking about philosophy,” Maltin said. “It’s reality TV on steroids.”
For now, the app is free and does not generate any revenue, but the company plans to introduce advertising in the future, sharing part of that revenue with artists.
“This was the original reason we built the app,” Maltin said, “so celebrities can monetize their social media outreach and activities.”
SOURCE: EURweb.com
Article and Picture Courtesy of EUR Web
