Okay, here's the question:

Would Prince ever do this (posted below) and try to beat the bootlegers at their game...

..OR...

Not use this system because he'd have no control with editing, using overdubs, etc. Really wanting to excercise "artistic control"

U decide: Good or Bad?

(Personally, Prince could clean up on this along with the NPGMC club. If bootlegers are going to release it direct without his editing regardless, he may as well beat them to it)

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Link:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/.../kgcv.html

Monday June 16, 11:30 AM


See a Show, Listen on Drive Home


An upstart company is selling CDs of rock concerts just minutes after the bands finish their encores, offering fans a legal alternative to a product pirates have been hustling since the invention of the cassette tape.
DiscLive tested its proprietary software and custom-built, high-speed CD burners at shows a few months ago. It started its business in earnest two weeks ago when it recorded a Jefferson Starship concert near Niagara Falls and began selling CDs of the show almost immediately after it ended.

"The bands don't get a chance to edit or even listen to it; that's part of the fun," said DiscLive CEO Rich Isaacson, who was formerly president and co-owner of Loud Records, the hip-hop label purchased last year by Sony Music.

Mostly the company intends to sell the CDs at the concert venue and only to attendees; that way, bands and their labels need not worry about cannibalizing sales of official releases. But for Jefferson Starship, currently unsigned, there's a limited number of CDs from the Niagara Falls show available at DiscLive.com to anyone wishing to purchase them.

The number of CDs produced is usually limited to about 20% of a venue's capacity, and they are meant to be "high-end concert memorabilia," Isaacson said. Concertgoers unwilling to risk not getting a CD may purchase a copy in advance at DiscLive.com, print a receipt and trade it for the CD after the show. Whether purchased on the spot or online in advance, the price is the same: $25.

Since that first Jefferson Starship concert, DiscLive has been at two others. Of the total 900 showgoers, 220 bought a CD, and 30% of them did so in advance online, Isaacson said.

Such numbers, though, represent fairly insignificant revenue and don't come close to covering costs, especially considering that DiscLive pays the appropriate fees to publishers and splits its take with the artist, label and venue. Its share of each sale is only about $6, though its portion varies from band to band, Isaacson said.

But the company is working the small shows, such as Jefferson Starship and others, so that it may prove the concept to bigger bands and organizers of the kind of music festivals that can attract 100,000 fans or more in a single weekend.

"We're basically creating a new market," Isaacson said. "We're building trust."

DiscLive, though, isn't alone. Competition already has sprung up from none other than Clear Channel Communications, the largest concert and radio company in the country.

Its initiative, Instant Live, is starting at small clubs in and around Boston, where it has been selling CDs of shows for only $15. Unlike DiscLive, Clear Channel doesn't intend to limit its Instant Live CDs to concert trinkets but will sell them at Best Buy stores in Boston and at BestBuy.com and promote the CDs by playing cuts on its radio channels. Such grandiose plans, though, could mean that Clear Channel will have trouble wooing bands signed to big labels, fearful that readily available and well-promoted Instant Live CDs will compete with official releases.

But labels would share in the revenue, said Steve Simon, executive vp at Clear Channel Entertainment Music Group. "What if the studio album has gone through its cycle, and sales are flat?" he asks. "This creates revenue without expense."

I think this is a very cool idea. Can't see Prince adopting it though for the control reason you stated. Shame because for me a live concert should really be "warts and all", I kinda like that imperfection you sometimes get, even from Prince.

Also much prefer an entire concert than excerpts from several shows (as with ONA Live).

Prince always soundboards his gigs and I have never been able to understand why he doesn't just release them for purchase from his website. It would be such an easy way to put bootleggers out of business. (isn't that what Primal Scream do?)

I simply don´t believe it. This is the millionth time I´ve had an excellent idea and then read about someone else doing it a month later... Maybe I should start wearing a metal helmet to prevent those evil people from reading my mind and stealing my ideas.

if P wasnt the ultimate perfectionist he may consider it.
but can u ever imagine a orrifial live P release w/out overdubs???

sadly,i cant.

bring on leaked SB bootlegs anyday


rock on DNA,SmallClub & Sendai 89!!!