Major League Baseball Gets Into The Music Business

If there's one thing that I love almost as much as music it's baseball. From the time I was a little kid I was a Phillies fan, but I'll watch any game on television if it's interesting. That's why I found it intriguing when it was announced that Major League Baseball's Advanced Media division was teaming with AEG Live to produce and stream The Global Citizen Festival on the Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park on September 20th.

The festival, which will feature Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Alicia Keys, and The Kings of Leon this year, is all about raising money for a variety of charities world-wide, so you'd wonder why MLB would want to get involved since it can't really make money. It turns out that all it wants is some experience in selling worldwide rights, which it can then directly apply to growing baseball outside the United States and creating a new source of revenue.

One would think that an event like Global Citizen would be a somewhat easy sell, based on the fact of the talent involved and the fact that it's a charity, but we'll have to see how successful they'll be in the end. The new global Red Bull Network seems to be an ideal potential licensee.

Lest it be thought that MLB Advanced Media lacks the technical chops to do the job, keep in mind that it was actually on the forefront of Internet streaming well before the other leagues and currently streams hundreds of out-of-market games via MLB.tv, plus it also operates its own television network. MLB has also indicated that it's looking to be involved in more music projects in the future.