Live Shows In Your Pocket
Posted: April 30, 2004 9:59 am
NEW YORK - Oh, how far we've come from the 78, the 45, even
the CD. Now, minutes after your favorite band sounds its last note on
stage, you can load a live recording of the concert onto a cigarette-
lighter-sized hard drive hanging off your keychain.
Take it home, toss the digital files onto your computer and then e-
mail it to all your friends with the message, "Dude! These guys are
awesome!"
On May 21, new digital kiosks offering the tiny drives will be
installed at Maxwell's, a small indie-rock club in Hoboken, N.J. At
$10 a pop for the recording, and $20 for the reusable, keychain
drive, let the downloading begin.
"This is a tool that allows fans to take home and share some of the
best independent music from small live venues around the country,"
said Daniel Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates, a private equity
firm that owns eMusic Live, which created the machines, as well as
eMusic, a music file-sharing Web site, and The Orchard, a marketing
firm for independent labels.
For Scott Ambrose Reilly, president of eMusic Live, the idea is to
let fans have a legal copy of a live show, which gives smaller
artists and their labels creative control over the quality of the
recording and a commercial stake in its distribution.
The understanding is also that it is not a one-time recording. Fans
can share the files with their friends, providing free word-of-mouth
publicity for smaller bands.
For eMusic Live, the devices are just the next step for a service
that it and other competitors already provide: burning CDs of live
performances right after a show ends.
"What we were seeing is that a large number of people were taking
their CDs home and ripping them to MP3s, so we thought it would
benefit music fans to eliminate that middle step," Reilly said.
The technology is quite simple: The music fan goes up to the touch-
screen kiosk after the show and buys the keychain drive with a credit
card from a dispenser alongside the screen. Once that's done, the
miniature drive is inserted into a slot in the kiosk, and the
recording — stored as MP3 files — is loaded onto the device's 128-
megabyte hard drive. That is enough space for 110 minutes of music.
A receipt for the transaction is sent to the concertgoer's e-mail
address.
"I can remember when I started the debate was whether the 45 or 33
would be more successful," said Richard Gottehrer, author of hits
like "My Boyfriend's Back," and "I Want Candy," and chairman of The
Orchard. "Now the Napsters of the world are yesterday's news and this
is the newer, legal, next step."
Whether the technology will take off remains to be seen. But its
creators are optimistic and hope to roll the machines into venues
around the country soon.
"Admittedly this won't be for everyone," Reilly said. "But since the
direction of music is increasingly going digital, I don't see why
this wouldn't find its niche."
At a demo for the device at a sound studio in Manhattan on Tuesday, a
New York-based band, Elysian Fields, performed three songs, which
were quickly loaded onto the "pen drives" afterward.
Later, at home, the device was inserted into the USB port of a laptop
computer and voila! singer Jennifer Charles' smoky, lilting lyrics
and Oren Bloedow's reverbed-out, brooding guitar lines filled the
living room.
Charles called the new technology "a beautiful thing."
"I'm very excited to be a part of this incredible and sexy
technology," she said between songs. "It makes us feel very James
Bond. You can have your little pens — wow, beam me up Scotty."
On the net:
eMusic Live: http://www.emusiclive.com
the CD. Now, minutes after your favorite band sounds its last note on
stage, you can load a live recording of the concert onto a cigarette-
lighter-sized hard drive hanging off your keychain.
Take it home, toss the digital files onto your computer and then e-
mail it to all your friends with the message, "Dude! These guys are
awesome!"
On May 21, new digital kiosks offering the tiny drives will be
installed at Maxwell's, a small indie-rock club in Hoboken, N.J. At
$10 a pop for the recording, and $20 for the reusable, keychain
drive, let the downloading begin.
"This is a tool that allows fans to take home and share some of the
best independent music from small live venues around the country,"
said Daniel Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates, a private equity
firm that owns eMusic Live, which created the machines, as well as
eMusic, a music file-sharing Web site, and The Orchard, a marketing
firm for independent labels.
For Scott Ambrose Reilly, president of eMusic Live, the idea is to
let fans have a legal copy of a live show, which gives smaller
artists and their labels creative control over the quality of the
recording and a commercial stake in its distribution.
The understanding is also that it is not a one-time recording. Fans
can share the files with their friends, providing free word-of-mouth
publicity for smaller bands.
For eMusic Live, the devices are just the next step for a service
that it and other competitors already provide: burning CDs of live
performances right after a show ends.
"What we were seeing is that a large number of people were taking
their CDs home and ripping them to MP3s, so we thought it would
benefit music fans to eliminate that middle step," Reilly said.
The technology is quite simple: The music fan goes up to the touch-
screen kiosk after the show and buys the keychain drive with a credit
card from a dispenser alongside the screen. Once that's done, the
miniature drive is inserted into a slot in the kiosk, and the
recording — stored as MP3 files — is loaded onto the device's 128-
megabyte hard drive. That is enough space for 110 minutes of music.
A receipt for the transaction is sent to the concertgoer's e-mail
address.
"I can remember when I started the debate was whether the 45 or 33
would be more successful," said Richard Gottehrer, author of hits
like "My Boyfriend's Back," and "I Want Candy," and chairman of The
Orchard. "Now the Napsters of the world are yesterday's news and this
is the newer, legal, next step."
Whether the technology will take off remains to be seen. But its
creators are optimistic and hope to roll the machines into venues
around the country soon.
"Admittedly this won't be for everyone," Reilly said. "But since the
direction of music is increasingly going digital, I don't see why
this wouldn't find its niche."
At a demo for the device at a sound studio in Manhattan on Tuesday, a
New York-based band, Elysian Fields, performed three songs, which
were quickly loaded onto the "pen drives" afterward.
Later, at home, the device was inserted into the USB port of a laptop
computer and voila! singer Jennifer Charles' smoky, lilting lyrics
and Oren Bloedow's reverbed-out, brooding guitar lines filled the
living room.
Charles called the new technology "a beautiful thing."
"I'm very excited to be a part of this incredible and sexy
technology," she said between songs. "It makes us feel very James
Bond. You can have your little pens — wow, beam me up Scotty."
On the net:
eMusic Live: http://www.emusiclive.com
