Live Concerts on CD – Instantly
Instant Live, Clear Channel Entertainment’s live concert CD program, has signed its first major-label artist. Billboard has learned that Atlantic Records artist Jewel will sell live CDs at select dates on her summer tour.
Clear Channel is still evil for trying to patent this idea, but it is good news that it’s starting to break out to major label artists. There’s a list of other artists signed up for this service in the article, too.
It’s a horrible picture of Jewel with the article, though. Is she pregnant? Did I miss a gossip page? Or is it just a bad angle?
28. June 2004 at 14:44
Jewel has been looking pretty wretched since her last album. Ahh, I yearn for the days of ‘Pieces of You.’
28. June 2004 at 14:44
Pearl Jam is the first major label artist to do this. They pioneered the practice early last year with their tour.
28. June 2004 at 14:57
Wes –> Did Pearl Jam have the CDs available right away after the concert like this? I remember seeing displays in music stores with stacks of recent live albums, but I wasn’t sure if those were the Instant Variety, or just authorized bootlegs (basically).
Ezekiel –> Yeah, that ranch boyfriend of hers turned her around for too long, I think. Blame the other man. That’s what I’ll do. ;-)
28. June 2004 at 15:10
With the 2003 tour, you could buy the boots over the internet before the show had even occurred. Within 2 hours of the show’s end, you got unmastered MP3s, recorded directly from the soundboard e-mailed directly to you. The tangible discs (that were re-mastered and cleaned up) were in your mailbox within a week.
So it’s kind of a mix of both. Remember, though, they did this (and are still doing this) on their own. Clear Channel decided to cash in on their own with this idea.
On the 2000 tour (the first tour where every show was available for purchase) you bought them after the tour had completed and then it took four to six weeks to get the discs to you.
29. June 2004 at 11:31
Here’s where I let my freak flag fly, my favorite band the Allman Brothers were the forst band to do the Instant Live last year in a trial run with Clearchannel. I have a couple of the shows and they did a great job mixing the SBD and the AUD mixes, although on one show that had to cut a 25 minute Mountain Jam to fit it on disc 2 and 3 (it’s since been fixed on a re-release coming out next month).
29. June 2004 at 13:10
Wes — Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
Chris — One of my favorites, O.A.R., is covering the Allman Bros’ “Melissa” on all their tour stops this year. Mixing the AUD with the SBD is the trickiest part of most recordings. The OAR concerts I have are 99% SBD-only. It works well for the songs, but when the audience is singing, they sound so distant…