Live Concert Downloads As New Revenue Source

variety: In a growing trend to "relive" the live concert experience - which essentially provides authorized bootlegs - The former Dire Straits leader, Mark Knopfler, will offer select performances from his 2005 world tour recorded on AMD64 technology running Yamaha/Steinberg's Nuendo audio software on the Windows XP Pro operating systems. The digital downloads of the concert will reportedly be available the very next day. So, if everything goes off owithout a hitch, tonight's Nashville show will be available by tomorrow night...While other acts have toyed with the idea, there's usually a longer lag time between posting and availability...Through an arrangement with Crowfly Digital Entertainment, a Nashville-based company focused on providing premium live music recordings directly to music fans, Knofler is the first major label artist to offer concert downloads within 24 hours of an appearance.

The good news for fans is that once you buy a $15 download, you'll be able to burn it to CD as many times as you like - which is a smart move and should be applauded as it caters to fair use... However, since professionally mixing an entire concert normally is a much longer process, I wonder if the quality of the mix will be the same...But what's more important to the average consumer? Fidelity or Expediency? MP3's standardization partly answers that question. Or is this just a new niche market for the ultra loyal fans...It would be cool if they offered the files uncompressed for those of us who prefer high frequencies and deeper spatial imaging...In any event, it's an exciting new alternative for certain artists to recoup some of their losses from declining CD sales...Also, concert download sales will probably increase once prices drop below CD pricing - since there's no artwork, etc...HERE'S a press release from AMD with more info.