DESPITE ALL THE hate it gets, anyone who's been to Coachella knows it's a damn good time.
I attended once in 2024, where I was welcomed as a Coachella elder. The music is killer, if you can dodge all the influencers setting up ring cameras. I’d likely be right back there huffing dust in the day-glo desert if I could afford the tickets, flight, and potentially very annoying drive into the Colorado Desert.
Luckily, I have a smartphone. And Coachella, which has livestreamed its sets for years, has revamped its vertical video feed to appeal to mobile users. So what better way to embrace “Couchella” than by watching only in this one format all weekend?
Coachella’s feeds got a quality boost this year, now streaming seven stages exclusively on YouTube, with 4K video and multiview options that you can swap between like they’re Olympic events. The festival’s EDM- and DJ-oriented Quasar stage, livestreaming on YouTube shorts all weekend, was shot exclusively on Google Pixel devices. That’s the one I’ve decided to mainline.
Vertical video is everywhere. Besides every social media service prioritizing endlessly scrollable video feeds, Disney has introduced short videos called Verts to its Disney+ streaming platform. Bravo will soon be pushing out vertical videos hosted by the AI avatar of Andy Cohen to share “iconic scenes” from its sprawling universe of reality TV. Even the Oscars have poked fun at the trend.
