YouTube Live Tokyo 2008: low quality and not live

Bad news for those of you who expected that the YouTube Live Tokyo 2008 concert would be equal in quality to the American live concert YouTube streamed yesterday: YouTube Live Tokyo is not being streamed live.

The live event was supposed to start at 3:00PM. Hours have passed and it now seems that the event is in progress, but visitors to the Tokyo Live YouTube channel will find that it does not have streaming live video. Instead, we are asked to watch a playlist of pre-recorded videos. There is nothing live about YouTube Live Tokyo. It is just a set of videos uploaded after being recorded, all of which were shot from the same boring angle.

The YouTube user reaction in the comments’ section of the videos ranges from the confused to the angry:

AngelxDear: When does Tokyo Live start? Anyone know?

begirlinc: I only wish they can give us more than one angle…

Intershark: Low-budget YouTube Japan… This event in Tokyo is extremely awful and disappointed.

Compared to YouTube Live in San Francisco, this event in Tokyo is catastrophic.

hajiketobu:LOL It isn’t Live muahaha!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING YOUTUBE JAPAN???

3561920: so where is the actual show?

As of 5:35PM, the most recently uploaded video was a performance by Otofuke Kenta (Uploaded around 5:00PM). According to the officially advertised YouTube Live Tokyo schedule, his “live” performance was supposed to have taken place at 3:40.

Quite a terrible disappointment.

Update: Boa’s performance was uploaded sometime late last night, and it seems there was actual camera work and a special stage for her act. The videos of other main acts – Blue Man Group and Kreva – are not yet available.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)