Live Nation + iTunes concert audio and video implications?

B-Rye

Found this article...didn't know if anybody posted about it. Apparently Livenation has wired 80 venues to offer audio and video concert downloads from iTunes. Got me thinking if Pearl Jam would partake, if that was even a good idea, or if they would go their own route. Personally, I would love to be able to download concerts directly through iTunes...and to have video? that would be amazing. The Live Nation partnership could be troubling depending on what they demand on the backend tho.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/11/24/app ... ia-itunes/

B-Rye

And here is the press release...

LIVE NATION AND iTUNES JOIN FOR LAUNCH OF NEW LIVE MUSIC PROGRAM
Live Nation Studios to Capture and Release Exclusive Live Audio and
Video Performances on iTunes

LOS ANGELES, CA -- November 24, 2009 -- Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), the world’s largest live music company, has joined with the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), the world’s #1 music retailer, to launch a new live music program, which debuted today. Live Nation Studios will now offer exclusive recorded and filmed concerts from its network of “wired” venues for purchase and download only on iTunes. Exclusive live recordings from OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Duffy, Plain White T's and Ziggy Marley, to name a few, have been released this week, with many more to follow.

“We are thrilled to offer artists a new high-quality platform to share the magic of their live shows with their fans,” said Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation.
Live Nation, through its Studios division, regularly records concerts in more than 80 of its venues, which have been transformed into next-generation “wired” live recording studios, and will now offer a variety of them for purchase and download exclusively on iTunes. The program extends the live concert experience well beyond the show itself, giving customers exclusive content at a great value and opening a new avenue for touring artists to easily offer audio and video recordings of live concerts directly to their fans, creating new sources of revenue for Live Nation and its partners – artists, labels and music publishers.
To coincide with the program's launch, iTunes has added a new area dedicated exclusively to live recordings.

ABOUT LIVE NATION

Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience. Our core business is producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via our global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 22,000 concerts for 1,600 artists in 33 countries. During 2008, the company sold over 50 million concert tickets and drove over 70 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LYV. For additional information about the company, please visit www.livenation.com/investors.

3legged dog

Sweet find!! Thx 4 sharing!

Get_Right

long time coming

I would guess that PJ would make less than they currently do by selling them directly

Zod

I still like the option of buying cd's. I'm guessing if it went to itunes we'd lose that option. The diff in price the 10c charges between flac and cd, is about what I'd pay for time, effort, and stuff to make my own package, which still looks crappy compared to the real thing.

as for video. I dunno, I'd prefer dvds/blurays for order, then itunes video.

B-Rye

You make a good point. I don't think we'd lose that option though. I am sure the 10c will still do what they do now and offer the hard copy versions, if they used live nation's infastructure at all.

Ok

B-Rye wrote:

You make a good point. I don't think we'd lose that option though. I am sure the 10c will still do what they do now and offer the hard copy versions, if they used live nation's infastructure at all.

Man I hope not. I can't handle any further LN/Ticketbastard intrusion on my life. They might even try a convenience charge on these downloads.

Jeff Murray

I hope not since I'm not an iTunes user. Personally found other mp3 players that were better then iPods and just rip my cds rather then download.

benjs

Jeff Murray wrote:

I hope not since I'm not an iTunes user. Personally found other mp3 players that were better then iPods and just rip my cds rather then download.

Care to elaborate? I found that the marriage between iTunes and the iPod made the iPod into a highly desirable and practical product. I find most companies don't fully comprehend what a great user interface should be, and that Apple has that down.

Get_Right

Ok wrote:

Man I hope not. I can't handle any further LN/Ticketbastard intrusion on my life. They might even try a convenience charge on these downloads.

no "might" about it
they might even require bands to do it if LN is the promoter and TM is the ticket seller

for most bands, this wouldnt be a big deal, but since PJ already sells its boots directly, I cant see how adding LN into the mix would benefit PJ or the fans

Jeff Murray

benjs wrote:

Jeff Murray wrote:

I hope not since I'm not an iTunes user. Personally found other mp3 players that were better then iPods and just rip my cds rather then download.

Care to elaborate? I found that the marriage between iTunes and the iPod made the iPod into a highly desirable and practical product. I find most companies don't fully comprehend what a great user interface should be, and that Apple has that down.

I have had two Creative Labs Zen mp3 players over 5 years, both 32 GB and they both still work perfectly. My friends have gone through iPods like they are throw away phones. I have found the interface with my mp3 players to be just as intuitive as the iPod. Part of the dislike for me of the iPod is that in the beginning they had the battery issues and the DRM restrictions on their downloads.

Although I will admit Apple definitely marketed the iPod perfectly, when people talk of mp3 players they think of iPods, sort of like asking for a Kleenex rather then a tissue. But the final deciding factor for me is the pricing, you get more bang for your buck with Creative Labs then you do with Apple. It drives me crazy that my sister's kids only want iPods and I can get them a comparable mp3 player with more memory for less money. But then again I'm a geek and not cool so I just don't understand in their eyes!

benjs

Jeff Murray wrote:

benjs wrote:

Jeff Murray wrote:

I hope not since I'm not an iTunes user. Personally found other mp3 players that were better then iPods and just rip my cds rather then download.

Care to elaborate? I found that the marriage between iTunes and the iPod made the iPod into a highly desirable and practical product. I find most companies don't fully comprehend what a great user interface should be, and that Apple has that down.

I have had two Creative Labs Zen mp3 players over 5 years, both 32 GB and they both still work perfectly. My friends have gone through iPods like they are throw away phones. I have found the interface with my mp3 players to be just as intuitive as the iPod. Part of the dislike for me of the iPod is that in the beginning they had the battery issues and the DRM restrictions on their downloads.

Although I will admit Apple definitely marketed the iPod perfectly, when people talk of mp3 players they think of iPods, sort of like asking for a Kleenex rather then a tissue. But the final deciding factor for me is the pricing, you get more bang for your buck with Creative Labs then you do with Apple. It drives me crazy that my sister's kids only want iPods and I can get them a comparable mp3 player with more memory for less money. But then again I'm a geek and not cool so I just don't understand in their eyes!

Fair enough! I got the original 160GB model once they discontinued it, got it for a very good price, and have had it for about two and a half years now, and it still works great. A wheel and five intuitive buttons is all it's got, and it works for me. The Zen series are about the only other MP3 player I'd consider as well, actually.

Jeff Murray

[/quote] Fair enough! I got the original 160GB model once they discontinued it, got it for a very good price, and have had it for about two and a half years now, and it still works great. A wheel and five intuitive buttons is all it's got, and it works for me. The Zen series are about the only other MP3 player I'd consider as well, actually.[/quote]

You got a deal at the right time! I got my latest at the end of the model run too, if you don't care about the bells and whistles of the new models it can save you some considerable dough.

Question for the iPod users - Does iTunes keep a record of your purchases so you can download songs again if your iPod dies and you didn't back up properly? Just curious....

benjs

Jeff Murray wrote:

Fair enough! I got the original 160GB model once they discontinued it, got it for a very good price, and have had it for about two and a half years now, and it still works great. A wheel and five intuitive buttons is all it's got, and it works for me. The Zen series are about the only other MP3 player I'd consider as well, actually.[/quote]

You got a deal at the right time! I got my latest at the end of the model run too, if you don't care about the bells and whistles of the new models it can save you some considerable dough.

Question for the iPod users - Does iTunes keep a record of your purchases so you can download songs again if your iPod dies and you didn't back up properly? Just curious....[/quote]
I'm not sure how many re-downloads you get, but yes, I've done a re-download even back when they were DRM'ed files, so I would presume you can do the same now.

John Briggs 2008

Striking a deal with Live Nation is like selling your soul to the devil. PJ will never do business with that Corp.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

Jeff Murray wrote:

Question for the iPod users - Does iTunes keep a record of your purchases so you can download songs again if your iPod dies and you didn't back up properly? Just curious....[/quote]

they do keep a record, but it's your responsibility to back up your purchases. if you lose them, you won't get them back for free. You have to pay for them all again. I checked this out in their FAQ portion of the help in iTunes. Unless something has changed, I don't know, but I don't think so.

One good thing is you can "authorize" more than one pc to share your DRM through iTunes with. You just have to register it. I have two pc's registered, so if I transfer all my songs from one pc to the other, the "lock" is disabled.

B-Rye

Why do you have Bono in your avatar?

DeRamos

B-Rye wrote:

Why do you have Bono in your avatar?

I can totally anticipate Johnny Sitar's response for this literal FAQ.

Anyhow, if PJ wanted to release quickly-edited videos for every show, I'd rather see them hire local film students (for every region) with obsolete 3CCD camcorders and Final Cut editing software than go with Live Nation's glossy resources. Other than that, I'm happy with the digital audio downloads.