DULLES, Va., July 14 (UPI) -- In the week following the Live 8 event, more than 8.5 million unique visitors to aolmusic.com requested 25 million on-demand plays.
AOL said Thursday the number of on-demand plays was record-breaking. Live 8 was held July 2 to raise awareness on the problem of global poverty.
The company also announced that the Live 8 on-demand package -- featuring hundreds of rare live performances from top artists -- has been extended by three weeks and will now be available on aolmusic.com through Sept. 5.
Pink Floyd, who reunited for the first time in more than 20 years for the event, has garnered the most on-demand plays, followed by Madonna, U2 and Green Day as the most requested artists. Among the most popular individual performances are Paul McCartney's and U2's rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" -- which opened the London show -- and the Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft performance of the Verve hit "Bittersweet Symphony."
Meanwhile, the term "Live 8" reached the No. 1 spot on AOL's newly launched Video Search product, with Pink Floyd and Madonna coming in as the most-searched-for artists.
"There's no doubt that the success our live coverage of the Live 8 events marked a pivotal moment in the perception of the Web as a medium that can capture the attention of a mainstream audience," said Jim Bankoff, executive vice president of Programming and Production for America Online.
"What we are now seeing with our on demand package is the ability to sustain an event over a period of time. People can come back to see what they want, when they want, as often as they want and we expect that to continue throughout the summer."
