The New Era of Music Marketing

[theknife]

i came across this whilst browsing the online version of my hometown paper. Very savvy marketing...takes full advantage of available technology, gives value to the fans and best of all, no record company required.

Live CDs Available Right After Concert

ATLANTIC CITY - Billy Idol fans got a surprise last week when they left the singer's show at Trump Marina Hotel Casino. They could buy a live double-CD of the concert they just attended.

Two companies - DiscLive from New York and Instant Live, a service of Clear Channel Entertainment - started this year offering concertgoers same-night, live CDs. Saturday was the first time live CDs were available in Atlantic City as a concert ended.

Concertgoers, who were not aware the CDs would be available, were handed a postcard from DiscLive representatives before they entered the Grand Cayman Ballroom telling them they could pre-purchase a double-CD copy of the live show they were about to see. Some paid $20 immediately to pick up the double CD after the show instead of buying the usual concert merchandise like T-shirts, posters and hats.

Jeff Gourley, 38, of Bridgewater Township, Somerset County, was one of the first in line to get the instant CD.

"It's a great idea. It's unbelievable," he said. "It's a piece of history."

Michael Diaz, 33, of Long Island, N.Y., who bought the CD Saturday night, said he wasn't disappointed when he played it.

"The quality is great,'' he said in a telephone interview from his home Wednesday. "You can't really hear the audience that much ... The vocals (on the CD) are a little weaker than what I heard in the room, but for a live CD, it sounds great."

The album was recorded in a mobile truck outside the Marina while Idol was on stage belting out hits like "Cradle of Love" and "Rebel Yell." Recorders took in audio from Idol's and the band's soundboard and from a microphone placed in the room to get crowd noise. An engineer inside the truck mixed the crowd noise into the appropriate spots of the soon-to-be-made CD.

As Idol entered his second hour of performing, more than 100 CD burners inside the truck started manufacturing the first CD of the two-CD set.

"We can have 125 burners going at one time. ... We can create 800 CDs in 15 minutes maximum," said Jacob Walker, the company's co-founder, who was there Saturday in the truck.

The concert ended at 11 p.m. and a line of people who pre-purchased the CD and had a voucher to show for it started lining up outside of the Grand Cayman. About 15 minutes after the show ended, two DiscLive employees showed up with boxes of CDs. They were slickly packaged with a live shot of Idol on the cover with the singer's name in the upper right-hand corner and the words "Live In Atlantic City, N.J. 09.13.2003" in the lower left-hand corner. Idol drew a piece of artwork that was reproduced for the back of every CD.

The DiscLive company has recorded concerts and made live CDs available for purchase on the same night less than a dozen times this year, but the sales at the Idol show were the best the company ever experienced. About 400 CDs were sold that night to the 2,200-fans who packed the sold-out concert. Almost one of every five concertgoers bought the live double CD. The company makes only 1,000 copies of any of their CDs because they are intended to be collectors' items.

"It's a nice memento. It will last longer than a T-shirt," said Linda Wollenberger, 36, of New York City.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...19LIVECDS.html