BINGE THIS

Typically, when we refer to streamers, we mean Spotify, Apple Music, et al. But now another group of streaming platforms—the ones serving up the TV shows you like to binge—are going big on music.

Hulu is the latest entrant, having stepped in as the streaming destination for three major festivals, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits (all products of C3 Presents, as it happens) in 2022 and 2023. As Lolla prepares to unspool in Chicago, Hulu is setting up two live feeds for Friday through Sunday (and one for Thursday’s shows); go here for the full lineup.

Several other TV streamers have gotten into the act big-time. Disney+, which gave Beatles fans the ultimate gift with Peter Jackson’s mesmerizing Get Back, has done an exclusive content deal with K-pop giants BTS, while Amazon Prime will stream the ACM Awards (for a second time). Apple+ continues to showcase music documentary programming such as Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry and Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson.

Netflix, meanwhile, has helped drive one of the year’s biggest music stories as its flagship fantasy Stranger Things wove Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” so deeply into its narrative that it became a (music) streaming monster, running all the way up Spotify Hill, while a spectacular sequence featuring Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” (pictured here) has propelled that song up the DSP charts as well.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to finish binge-watching The Bear, The Old Man, Better Call Saul and What We Do in the Shadows.