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VyRT
Type of site
Private
FoundedLos Angeles, California, U.S. 2011 - 2020
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Jared Leto
IndustryInternet
ServicesStreaming media, digital distribution, online shopping
URLvyrt.com

VyRT was an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers worldwide. The company was established in late 2011 and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. VyRT was founded by entertainer Jared Leto as a website for hosting online events, but soon diversified into featuring digital distribution and online shopping. It also included social networking.

By 2015, VyRT was receiving 3.5 million requests per minute and had surpassed 5,000 subscribers. Many of its live events became worldwide trending topics.[1]

History

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VyRT was established in late 2011 as a startup company by entertainer Jared Leto. His aim was to let musicians create live experiences and broadcast them on the Internet, with the ability to share their work without having to rely on the prevailing sponsor-based model.[2] Its inception came from some frustrating experiences Leto faced with American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in streaming their own live events.[3]

On December 7, 2011, VyRT streamed the Tribus Centum Numerarae, the 300th show of the Into the Wild Tour by Thirty Seconds to Mars, which garnered the band the Guinness World Record for most live shows during a single album cycle.[4] The show marked the launch of VyRT as an online platform.[5] At the 2012 O Music Awards in June, it was awarded Best Online Concert Experience.[6]

After the first streamed events, VyRT transitioned to a new site, expanding to digital distribution and online shopping, selling video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, and e-books. It also began to feature social networking.[7] The team rebuilt the website in Ruby on Rails and expanded its capacity on Heroku.[1] An official store featuring merchandise, DVDs, books, and apparel was also launched.[8] The artists featured on VyRT included Gerard Way, Linkin Park, Greek Fire, Ryan Beatty, The Janoskians, Ryan Cabrera, the Jonas Brothers, Boy Epic, Ivy Levan, and Brendan Brazier. Later, it began to stream films, beginning on August 31, 2013 with special screenings of the documentary film Artifact (2012), followed by the psychological horror film The Shining (1980) on February 9, 2014.[9][10]

In August 2014, it was announced that VyRT would exclusively broadcast worldwide the performance from the Carnivores Tour by Linkin Park and Thirty Seconds to Mars, scheduled on September 15 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.[11] Before Thirty Seconds to Mars took to the stage, the VyRT platform was hacked. Jared Leto was forced to delay the performance by Thirty Seconds to Mars by an hour to resolve the issue. The audience eventually lost approximately three minutes of actual stage time, but the set list was shortened. Leto later claimed that a "piracy stream" was responsible.[12] The event included "real-time social community engagement from audiences worldwide".[13]

In November 2014, the documentary series Into the Wild premiered on VyRT.[14] The series was produced by Jared Leto and Emma Ludbrook through the production company Sisyphus Corporation.[15] In May 2015, VyRT premiered episode one of indie pop musician Boy Epic's docuseries Telling Secrets in response to a Mars fan campaign to get him on the platform after he made a song inspired by Suicide Squad (2016).[16][17] Further episodes weren't released for unknown reasons.[18][19][20] On October 9, 2016, Thirty Seconds to Mars exclusively released Camp Mars: The Concert Film on VyRT. The film was directed by Leto, documenting the first Camp Mars event in 2015.[21]

By 2020, VyRT was still open but not receiving new livestreams or VOD content, with the last major livestream being an AT&T sponsored concert live from the third annual Camp Mars event in Malibu on August 12, 2017. The event itself was hosted on AT&T's website and their Facebook Live.[22][23] An initially planned partnership with Fandor, announced as part of Leto becoming Chief Creative Officer of the platform on May 21, 2017, never came to fruition.[24] Mars fans still used the site to communicate with other fans and host watch parties for VyRT VODs, with some hosted officially by VyRT.[25] In December 2020, the site redirected to a page on the official Thirty Seconds to Mars website formally announcing the end of the platform, thanking the user base and hinting at a new project from the same team.[26]

Services

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The VyRT website featured a main page, Live, and Vault, as well as a series of personal pages. The Live sections provided live streaming events as well as social networking. Users logged into their accounts during the broadcast and could chat with others via a live feed. The interaction window allowed users to quote, invite, reply, or find other users' profiles. Artists could also interact with users on the live feed.[1] The Vault sections consisted of all available events for purchase, including streaming and downloads.[27]

Livestreams were traditionally referred to as VyRTs, with ReVyRTs referring to rebroadcasts of livestreams. The service also hosted VyRT Violets, less professionally produced impromptu video chats, similar to what would later become Instagram Live.[12] VyRT didn't utilize proprietary services, instead favoring white label livestreaming platforms, online payment providers, and chat clients. The Bootstrap UI was used to provide an ad-free and easily customizable interface for artists.[28] Ustream was used for the first MARS300 broadcast.[29]

It is unknown if Thirty Seconds to Mars or others that held events on the platform plan to re-release Vault VOD content elsewhere after VyRT's closing.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Heroku Customer Success: VyRT". Heroku. Salesforce.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  2. ^ Safian, Robert (October 14, 2014). "'I Like To Employ The Power Of No': Jared Leto". Fast Company. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  3. ^ Fallon, Nicole (December 17, 2013). "Jared Leto Launches Live Streaming Service VyRT". Business News Daily. TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  4. ^ Montgomery, James (October 17, 2011). "30 Seconds To Mars Go For Guinness World Record". MTV. Viacom Media Networks. Archived from the original on February 26, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  5. ^ Beard, Lanford (December 7, 2011). "Jared Leto on Thirty Seconds to Mars' record-breaking tour: 'It's been the journey of a lifetime'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  6. ^ Fletcher, Jennifer (June 29, 2012). "2012 MTV O Music Award Winners". MTV Australia. Viacom Media Networks. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  7. ^ May, Alex (November 8, 2012). "VyRT Connects Rock Band To Passionate Fans". Hypebot.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  8. ^ "VyRTstore". VyRT. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  9. ^ "Artifact is Coming!". Thirty Seconds to Mars. July 29, 2013. Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  10. ^ "Movie Night". VyRT. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  11. ^ "VyRT Presents: Carnivores Tour". Thirty Seconds to Mars. August 20, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  12. ^ a b Stonebridge, Renna (September 16, 2014). "Pissed off Jared Leto to Shut Down 'VyRT'?". Stonebridge Daily. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  13. ^ Walker, Charles (August 20, 2014). "Carnivores Tour to stream live from Hollywood Bowl on VyRT". Irocke. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  14. ^ Montgomery, James (November 11, 2014). "Jared Leto Readies 'Unofficial Sequel' to Thirty Seconds to Mars' 'Artifact'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  15. ^ Sharp, Tyler (November 3, 2014). "Thirty Seconds To Mars announce documentary series, 'Into The Wild'". Alternative Press. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  16. ^ BOY EPIC [@BoyEpic] (March 13, 2015). "Hey #Echelon, it's official @JaredLeto is on it! Let's make this happen!!! @VyRT #SCARSforSkwad http://t.co/sGqzFoAux7" (Tweet). Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ VyRT [@VyRT] (May 10, 2015). "Ready for another broadcast? Join @BoyEpic in less than 15 MINUTES for his first broadcast: #TellingSecrets! — http://t.co/FSmFUDGVJ5" (Tweet). Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ VyRT [@VyRT] (October 10, 2015). "Haven't met @BoyEpic yet? Get acquainted with episode 1 of his #VyRT Series, #TellingSecrets: http://t.co/GEyShT1Sg5 http://t.co/YzQtYs58VV" (Tweet). Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "Boy Epic".
  20. ^ BOY EPIC [@BoyEpic] (November 14, 2015). "@ThatGirlAttie meeting with VYRT next week to finalize release date for #BoyEpicTellingSecrets" (Tweet). Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ "Watch Thirty Seconds to Mars' Wistful 'Camp Mars' Doc Trailer". Rolling Stone. September 30, 2016.
  22. ^ "AT&T Teams up with Thirty Seconds to Mars to Live Stream Concert & Provide Exclusive Connectivity for Camp Mars".
  23. ^ "Camp Mars - att.net". start.att.net. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  24. ^ "Jared Leto Named Chief Creative Officer of Film Streaming Service Fandor". The Hollywood Reporter. May 21, 2017.
  25. ^ Mithrian ArmyđŸ”ș [@ArmyMithrian] (May 6, 2020). "Inspired by the🍿Club we're watching THE DAWN WALL on Saturday..." (Tweet). Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via Twitter.
  26. ^ "Vyrt".
  27. ^ Holland, Maggie (December 31, 2012). "Jared Leto: The unsung hero of cloud computing?". Cloud Pro. Dennis Publishing. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  28. ^ "Jared leto". November 6, 2018.
  29. ^ "30 Seconds to Mars Selling Tickets for Streaming Concert".
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