UK mobile operator O2 has launched O2AcademyTV, a channel on YouTube based on its venues around the UK. Live performances will be uploaded to the channel regularly, along with artist interviews and backstage footage. Fans will also be able to upload their own videos shot at O2-branded venues to be used on the channel. “O2 Academy TV celebrates the raw aspect of live music in our venues, giving fans a unique opportunity to get closer to the artists they love, and giving artists a creative platform to promote their shows,” says head of music sponsorship Jasmine Skee. The new channel also features ‘ShoutOuts’ from fans recorded at venues with messages for their favourite acts.

Gorillaz already have an augmented reality iPhone App developed by [PIAS] Mobile, but it’s getting a meaty update in time for their gigs at The O2 venue in London.

Fans with the app will be able to point their iPhones at special markers dotted around the venue to see life-size 3D models of submarines, pirate ships and even the Plastic Beach locale that formed the concept of the band’s latest album. Markers will be deployed throughout the venue including in the arrival areas, VIP suites and on the screens.

The app will also deliver pseudo-backstage footage of Murdoc and coincide with the run-up to the start of the gig. Fans will be able to point their phones at the stage and using compass augmented reality find the backstage AR tag. By clicking on that tag the fan will be taken into a virtual backstage world and be able to see the animated characters getting ready for the show.

The world’s first 3D model augmented reality iPhone app.
Phone operator O2 and music mobile marketing agency PIAS Mobile have just released ‘Plastic Beach’, an ‘Augmented Reality’ iPhone App featuring the Gorillaz. For those not down with the latest buzzWords, ‘Augmented Reality‘ this is when you overlay a new Virtual Reality over a real image and can subsequently interact within the new world, or change your perception.