We're very pleased to announce that The Verge is partnering with the Panorama music, art, and technology festival from July 22nd to the 24th at Randall's Island Park in New York City. Headlined by artists like LCD Soundsystem, Kendrick Lamar, Alabama Shakes, and The Arcade Fire, Panorama promises to be three days of unforgettable experiences, and we'll be reporting from the center of it all.

From the very beginning, The Verge has been about the endless and fascinating collision of technology and culture — how the tools we use to consume and create art affect the art itself, and how the art shapes our tools. We can see it all around us, from a generation that communicates in gifs and emoji to the slow build of VR headsets explicitly influenced by '90s cyberpunk literature. Technology influences art; art inspires technology. This is why we're here.

More often than not, the future starts in music

And the relationship between music and technology is the most complex and powerful dynamic in the entire industry. Technology has made it easier to create and distribute and engage with music than ever before, while sending the entire business model of the industry into chaos time and time again.Our artists and their art constantly push and pull their medium, from iTunes to Spotify to YouTube to suddenly resurgent vinyl sales.

None of that would be possible if music didn't have such a charged, deeply emotional place in culture — not just here but around the world. More often than not, the future starts in music — whether it's being disseminated through the latest streaming platforms, or giving voice to our most urgent social concerns.

The experience of seeing live music has become more important than ever

And while the way we listen to and discover music changes with every passing month, the experience of seeing live music has become more important than ever — not only for artists, but for fans and the cities that host them. The festival landscape is crowded, but Panorama promises to be a different, more forward-looking approach to the whole three-days-in-a-field-with-a-million-amazing-bands experience.

As the media partner for the festival, The Verge will document how that experience comes together, by talking to the artists who are shaping the future of music — about their relationship with technology, their fans and the media. We're going to sit down with them in their studios and on the road to see their tools, and see firsthand how quickly the future of music is actually unfolding at festivals around the country. We'll tell stories with every tool we have at our disposal, from photography and video to new platforms like VR. We're going to have a ton of fun.

And we'll cap it all off by celebrating for three days at Panorama itself, inside an interactive experience we're calling Future Lab. We'll have much more on Future Lab in the weeks to come — it's going to be amazing. But for now, start getting ready for one of the summer's biggest events by checking out the full Panorama lineup, and stay tuned for much, much more from The Verge.