• by February 8, 2004

Still reeling from Janet Jackson's breast-baring publicity stunt during its sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show, America Online is gearing up for another party that it hopes won't have any unanticipated embarrassing moments. The online giant's next big gig takes place Feb. 7-8, when AOL Music presents an exclusive live video broadcast of Clive Davis' legendary pre-Grammy Awards party. The event, which begins at 9:30 PST on Feb. 7, marks the third consecutive year that AOL has partnered with Davis and his J Records label to present exclusive programming to members. The Grammy Awards will be broadcast on CBS on Feb. 8.

AOL plans to stream the more than four-hour party live to AOL members, but it will also make the party available to non-AOL members via AOL.com. The company hopes to showcase the party as an example of the exclusive content consumers can access on AOL for Broadband. To build excitement for its Grammy programming, AOL gave consumers a "free weekend" pass. The pass, which began on Feb. 3, offers free access to editorial content, a Radio@AOL Grammy Nominees station, trivia, polls, and other features.

Clive Davis' party will feature performances by Prince, the Foo Fighters, Carlos Santana, the Dave Matthews Brand, Dido, The White Stripes, The Calling, and more, as well as red carpet interviews with the invited artists. AOL Music programming supporting the Clive Davis party includes a photo gallery of celebrity guests, audio/video clips from the two previous parties, archived footage from Sessions@AOL, and other A/V and editorial content. "It's really about an on-demand experience--it's the guiding principle of everything we do," says Scott Richman, VP-marketing, AOL Entertainment.

"This type of platform is really all about the music. It's an insider's function--we have an inside view, an all-access pass to what is the hardest party to get into," Richman says. The party stream will be archived for one week for AOL for Broadband members to access on demand. "This is also a great companion to the Grammy TV broadcast."

To prevent another Janet/Justin debacle, AOL says that it will be using an audio/video time delay device during the streaming of the Clive party. The technology takes in audio and video, and holds it in memory for five seconds before relaying it. The delay offers AOL a 5-second window in which to temporarily interrupt the signal before a potentially offensive portion is broadcast.

AOL's advertiser partners for the Clive party include Sirius Satellite Radio, General Motors' Hummer, and L'Oreal. Hummer is also the sponsor of AOL's Broadband Rocks concert series. Sirius, which is broadcasting the party live to its 261,000 members, will have a presence on the red carpet and photo gallery area of AOL's Grammy coverage. For Sirius, it will be the first sponsorship with AOL Music. "It's a dream relationship with marketing and content benefits," says Mary Pat Ryan, executive-VP, marketing at Sirius. AOL reports that about one million people have responded to its polls on select Grammy nominee categories. Last year, AOL racked up more than 65,000 live streams of the Clive Davis party, and one million streams over a period of two days.