Rock band U2 is moving with the times. The Irish rock megastars streamed their concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California live on YouTube.

While around 100,000 fans packed the U2 360 Tour concert at the Rose Bowl, millions of music lovers logged on to the world's largest video sharing website to watch the event live.

"The band has wanted to do something like this for a long time," U2 manager Paul McGuinness said in a statement on the band's website.

"Fans often travel long distances to come to see U2 - this time U2 can go to them, globally," he said.

The concert was watched live for free in 16 countries: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain and the United States.

Though the Rose Bowl event was a first in many ways given the scale, it was not the first time that U2 allowed live streaming of their concert. Back in 1997, the Boston leg of U2's PopMart Tour was streamed on Microsift's MSN website.

"YouTube is thrilled to be able to provide our global audience with a live streaming performance from one of the world's greatest bands," Chris Maxcy, director of YouTube partner development, said in a blog post.

The Twittersphere is also abuzz about the U2 live webcast. The hashtag #U2webcast is currently the top trending topic on Twitter.

The band's latest CD, No Line on the Horizon, debuted at the top of the charts when it was released in March and has sold a respectable 1 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But the CD, which features more electronic music experimentation from U2, is the group's lowest selling CD in more than a decade. It represents a marked drop from 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which has sold 3.2 million copies to date, and 2000's 4.3 million seller, All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Recently, the Michael Jackson memorial service (July 7,2009) was also streamed live by leading websites.

(With inputs from agencies)

Watch the rebroadcast of the concert

Promo video