If you thought picking up a full-length studio album on a USB stick was
hot stuff, di[rec] is out to make such an idea seem second rate. Founded by two ex-Sony BMG colleagues, the company is looking to round up support from their former employer, Warner Music, and various independent labels as it records live performances, mixes and masters on-site, and offers up the show on a
USB drive or "download voucher" as folks are filing out of the exits. Sadly, there's no word yet on how much the outfit plans on charging gullible concert goers for the privilege of reliving their deafening experiences over and over, but it has already given the system a go at Nova Rock in Austria last month. So, for those of you at the festival just weeks ago, how about clue the rest of us in on the quality and value of di[rec]'s offerings?
[Thanks, Lars G.]
posted Jul 10th 2007 4:52AM
Metallica actually offers their concert recordings for sale online within a few hours of the concert being over. It's also great if you couldn't get tix to be able to still hear what your friends that did get in heard.
BNL (BareNaked Ladies) have done this for the last two or three concert tours. You buy a voucher before the show and then you wait around and pick up the 256 MB USB drive with the concert on it afterwards. It's a really cool deal. The whole thing is around 20 bucks. And they call it.... BareNaked on a Stick. Clever and musically devine.
I have been to Novarock, I'm Austrian so I hope I can provide some insight.
The quality was a mixed bag, for some of the concerts it was fine (e.g. less than jake) for others it was subpar (In Flames). They say they encode with 192kbit but the mastering was a little off for IF.
The sticks were sold for 17 Euros (about 23 dollars) a piece, some of them containing not even the whole concerts - e.g. In Flames. IFs management only allowed 5 songs to be released but di[rec] still took the whole 17 Euros for it, citing contracts they couldn't breach, a rip off imo. After a huge shitstorms in the Novarock Forums they offered a free download for people who bought the IF download.
All downloadable files are copyrightprotected WMAs with all the hassle surrounding them (e.g. only downloadable with newest WMP and IE). The In Flames stick contained the 5 songs embedded i a flash player.
At Novarock they recorded (and are offering for sale at their webpage):
in flames
in this moment
under the influence of giants
clawfinger
chimaira
johnossi
excuse me moses
less than jake
The big challenge I see here is that the labels don't own the performing rights to the songs. In the majority of cases the labels own the rights to the recording made in the studio and what we hear on our radios, etc. The labels can start doing this with the memory sticks only if they cover the costs to the live recording and the whole process.
However, this is a great opportunity for artists, even if signed to a major label, because they can cover the costs of the investment, and get full rights and profits.
I would buy one just for one of those sexy USB drives...
Damn! Now the record labels want a piece of concert revenue? Damn!
Welcome to 5 years ago. A company called Digital Club Network started doing this before eMusic bought it and called it eMusic Live.
I still have my eMusic Live thumb drive. Booyah.
Though I'm not suprised the majors are trying to copy this and pretend they invented it.
Joseph Arthur already does something similar to this, and has for years. Only, instead of USB stick drives he sells CDs of the concert you were just at - a really great idea imho - every concert is just a little bit different then the last.
This does seem like pretty stupid overkill -- rather than selling a 5 cent CD-R of the concert, or just selling coupons for an online download once you get home, they sell a thumb drive (cheap-ish in bulk, I'm sure, but not anywhere near a CD) that's just big enough to hold the audio tracks but small enough that you have little use for it after you extract the data. You can get CD-duplicator towers that can crank out CDs at like two or three a minute per drive, times several drives per tower, times however many towers they want to buy. That just seems like it would be a better idea.
Of course, I don't really go to concerts generally, so maybe there's something about the market I don't understand.
Data transfer to the thumb drives will be far cheaper for them and faster than CDs, less error prone (bad burns) and the equipment required to produce them (as well as staff) will be much smaller, less complex, and more portable. You'd need several towers of burners, as well as robotics or lots of staff to load the CDs into trays and remove them and package for sale.
Personally, I'd rather have the thumb drive. If they branded the covers, that would be even sweeter. Digital download after the concert from the band's site (as someone mentioned that Metallica did) would be cool too.
i've also been to the nova rock festival and got my own, rather comfortable experience with the di[rec] recordings. their impressive on site presence (a huge truck with an enormous screen on top) was easily found cause it lighted up the whole place. their crew was eager to give information although they seemed a bit overwhelmed with the fast pace of their own product. made them seem sympathetic though. i've asked them myself about the whole 'in flames' scenario when i bought the stick. as it usually is with new ideas, they've simply been ripped off. their contracts consider whole sets, but there is no way anyone would want to break agreements in this early stage of cooperation with labels even if the band's representatives on site do so. that's why they had to charge to full price due to the contract but only got 5 songs on the stick because the band didn't let them release the whole set. still, they offered compensation and answered my request for another free download immediately and apologizing and what not. all other recordings were afaik of the whole show - just as it should have been with 'in flames'. quality was partially really great except for some parts where the recordings were disturbed by power fluctuations which isn't really their fault - and if the singer doesn't sing into the mic, it just can't be taped :-) in my opinion they've done great - it was a first and quite impressive start, showing what can be possible. support seems growing and i sure hope to find them after more and more shows.