Shea: CMJ streaming…please.

Tons of on-the-verge bands invading the stages of New York City’s most famous venues sounds… Tons of on-the-verge bands invading the stages of New York City’s most famous venues sounds like a festival worth checking out.

rVibe agrees.

So the online social music community is giving people across the country the chance to check out College Music Journal’s annual music marathon in New York City through live streaming this year.

A nice use of technology it might be, but in the end, no computer screen is ever going to capture the actual experience of being at a live show, despite how hard rVibe’s ads will try to convince you otherwise.

A live chat feature doesn’t come close to meeting someone tailgating in the parking lot and having a few beers with them and no video streaming, regardless of its quality, isn’t going to be the same as seeing the sweat drip off the forehead of the lead guitarist. And there is no way my MacBook could ever blow out my ears the way speakers taller than I am could.

Honestly, the whole thing vaguely annoys me. I understand that it’s cool that people far away from New York can experience the festival, but I’m almost insulted that rVibe thinks that online streaming comes anywhere close to the awesome experience of live music.

But what annoys me the most is that they are trying to charge for it.

Do they seriously think I’m going to buy a digital ticket for $25 to watch an online video? If they’re marketing this toward college students, they can’t possibly know their demographic.

We don’t drink Natty Light because we like the taste. We’re poor and obviously willing to sacrifice quality to save a few bucks.

So as far as catching clips and video footage of the CMJ Music Marathon on the Web goes, all signs point to YouTube.

I think if rVibe wasn’t trying to charge people for music, something our generation is pretty adamantly against, streaming the festival to the masses would be a pretty cool idea.

It gives the bands even more exposure, and they’d make a killing on Web ad sales. But for $25, Ramen-eating college students just aren’t going to buy it.

Additionally, CMJ is a five-day festival spanning from Wednesday Oct. 21 to Sunday Oct. 25 — a whole weekend.

For now I guess we’ll have to sit back and leave the real fun to NYU students, while we keep up our pipe dream that maybe Pitt Program Council will bring in a band for Bigelow Bash that doesn’t cite Taking Back Sunday as its No. 1 influence.