You can watch U2's California gig from the Irish rockers' 360 tour live on YouTube this weekend. Is this the shape of things to come? Well if it gives more access to music, then I'm for it. But will it be the big players who'll hog the net? Will the quality be any good? Will anyone bother to watch it, take England's football match away to Ukrane which attracted less than 25,000 subscribers, compared to the millions who watch on the TV.

YouTube has teamed up with U2 to stream this Sunday's gig at the Rose Bowl in California live online to an audience of millions worldwide.

The concert will be shown on the U2 official YouTube channel with ads around the songs and will be accompanied by a Twitter feed tracking the event.

After the concert, the full show will then be available to watch again on-demand. Viewing the footage live or after the event will be completely free.

The move, being dubbed U2ube, is the first time YouTube has shown live footage in this way and could pave the way for similar events in the future, YouTube's owners Google said.

The video-hosting site has been reluctant in the past to show live events on such a scale due to costs.

Last week YouTube signed up with Channel 4 to host all the shows from the TV channel's catch-up service 4oD in another unprecedented move.