[Slowhand] Slow burn over fast burns (no EC content)

[Art Arias]

Slow burn over fast burns

BY JIM DEROGATIS
One of the most innovative and promising developments
to hit the concert scene in years is a new program
that allows fans to purchase a CD recording of the
show they just witnessed before leaving the venue that
night.

But a battle is shaping up between independent artists
and several small companies offering this service --
including eMusicLive, which began recording shows at
Metro, Double Door and Schubas in March -- and concert
giant Clear Channel Entertainment, which patented the
technology that makes the process possible.

Based in San Antonio, Texas, Clear Channel is the
biggest concert promoter in the country. It owns 130
venues in the United States, including the Tweeter
Center in Tinley Park and Alpine Valley Music Theatre
in East Troy, Wis., although it has not yet
implemented its live recording program in the Chicago
area.

The Clear Channel program originated in Boston and is
called Instant Live. It's based on new technology that
is able to process a CD of a live recording within
five minutes of the end of a concert, producing as
many as 50 CDs every 10 minutes.

On Monday, Clear Channel announced that this summer,
it will offer some 100 live recordings of various
artists who will be taped throughout the country,
including Jewel, whose live discs will be issued in
conjunction with Atlantic Records.

Other participating artists will include the Allman
Brothers Band, the jam band moe., Michael Franti and
Spearhead, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic,
the Samples and the Smithereens.

Clear Channel bought the patent for the live-recording
technology from its inventors, and the company now
claims it owns exclusive rights to the concept of
selling concert CDs after shows.

"We want to be artist-friendly," Clear Channel
executive and Instant Live director Steve Simon told
Rolling Stone magazine. "But it is a business, and
it's not going to be, 'We have the patent, now
everybody can use it for free.' "

In an interview with the Reuters news service, Brian
Becker, chief executive of Clear Channel's live
entertainment unit, added, "We want this service to be
in widespread use and welcome all legitimate and
serious conversations with those interested in
licensing our patent. We will not, however, conduct 
licensing conversations in public or via the media."

Countered Danny Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates,
the New York equity firm that owns eMusicLive, "We
don't believe that our business practices infringe on
anybody's intellectual property." His company is ready
to fight Clear Channel on the issue.

"We're an enterprise that has patent lawyers that are
equal to their patent lawyers," Stein said."Basically,
they're trying to intimidate bands and smaller
companies. We're in a more  advantageous spot than the
other 80 people they're hunting, because they're going
after a lot of artists and people with no resources."

Though it's been gaining in popularity, the concept of
recording shows and selling the CDs to fans as they
leave the venue isn't new. Bands including the Allman
Brothers, moe. and Billy Idol have done it nationally
for several years. Train did it during a stint at
Schubas earlier this year in a process 
independent of eMusicLive, and Buddy Guy did it during
his traditional January run at Legends, working with a
Chicago company called Pirate
Entertainment.

Reunited alt-rock legends the Pixies were planning to
use a company called DiscLive to offer the service on
their summer tour. But the band is performing at many
Clear Channel venues, and the concert promoter forced
the group to work with its own Instant Live service
instead of any rival companies.

"I'm not fond of doing business with my arm twisted
behind my back," Pixies manager Ken Goes told Rolling
Stone.

So far, Clear Channel's declaration of war has not
affected eMusicLive's operations in Chicago, and the
company still hopes to expand to other clubs here and
across the country.

eMusicLive charges $10 for a single-disc recording
($15 for a double-disc) and splits the net profits
(usually about $6) with the band. The CDs also have
been made available at select independent record
stores, and MP3s of some shows can be downloaded from
the company's Web site, emusiclive.com.

The clubs -- which get a cut of the gross -- leave it
up to the artists to decide whether they want to
participate. Some cannot because their recording
contracts prohibit releasing any CD that isn't
sanctioned by their label. Others opt out because
they'd rather do it themselves, or they'd prefer not
to have live documents of less-than-stellar shows in
the marketplace.

Joe Shanahan, owner of Metro and a co-owner of the
Double Door, said the program has been off to a slow
start, with CD sales ranging from two to 10 copies a
night. Schubas reports similar numbers. Both promoters
say smaller unsigned artists have been the prime users
of the program. But they believe it has a lot of
promise.

"I think it's a great idea, and the CDs sound better
than most live recordings I've ever heard," said
Schubas talent booker Matt Rucins.

"People often want a remembrance of a special night of
music, and this is much better than a tour T-shirt,"
Shanahan said. He believes the program will grow in
popularity as artists and fans become more familiar
with it and as eMusicLive moves to the next phase of
its implementation.

The company is gearing up to introduce onsite kiosks
where concertgoers can download the show they just saw
to a 128-MB USB pen drive (a small device that can be
purchased for about $50), prior to transferring it to
their computer or iPod or burning their own CD at
home. The first of these kiosks just debuted at
Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J.

"It takes 10 seconds, and it's even easier than buying
a CD because you don't have to carry it home," said
the company's Stein. "You can bring your own pen
drive, or you can buy one right there at the kiosk if
you don't already have one."


http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-record30.html


		
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