It can be easier nowadays to become a star on MySpace than with a new CD released by a record label - and established bands finally are catching up as major acts increasingly use the Internet to create buzz around their next concert or new album.
The Seattle rock band Pearl Jam - headlining at the District’s Verizon Center on Sunday - offers its fans a chance not only to see it perform live, but also to purchase and download the concert with the highest audio and video quality. This is all thanks to Internap, a content-delivery network that provides bootleg recordings. High-quality digital downloads and burn-to-order CDs will be available after each show through Ten Club, Pearl Jam’s fan club.
“Pearl Jam is dedicated to their music and their fans,” said Tim Bierman, manager of the Pearl Jam Ten Club, in a June 12 statement. “Internap’s CDN and Performance IP Network help the band connect with its fans through pearljam.com and nurture that relationship through live, professionally mastered recordings of their legendary concert performances.”
Pearl Jam has sold more than 3.5 million bootlegs since launching the program on its 2000 world tour. The idea was to offer fans high-quality, affordable bootlegs - and, of course, to capture some of the revenue that otherwise might go to unauthorized bootleggers.
Pop stars increasingly are experimenting with alternatives to traditional record deals as Internet piracy and declining CD sales mean tours and merchandise often are more lucrative than the recordings themselves. For example, in a bid to boost its audience and woo young listeners, Radiohead first offered its latest album, “In Rainbows,” over the Internet on a “pay-what-you-want” basis.
There is a wide range of interactive ways for fans to get music on the Internet apart from bands’ Web sites or online newsletters. Coldplay, for example, is using an application on social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace that enables fans to stream “Violet Hill” and “Viva La Vida” - the first single and title song, respectively - from the group’s new album.
“Violet Hill” also was downloadable from Coldplay’s Web site a month before the new album’s release on June 17. Two million people took advantage of that offer, according to media reports.
So rapid is the pace of change in the music industry, however, that downloading free tracks via the Internet seems almost quaint. For years, Web surfers have been able to find videos on YouTube from concerts they have missed, or they have bought live DVDs. But that’s so yesterday. It’s possible now to go to a concert online.
The Concert Web site DeepRockDrive films artists at a private soundstage in Las Vegas and broadcasts the footage live on the Internet. The audience can send in messages during the show that the bands can see on large screens surrounding the stage. These pay-per-view shows cost $7 each. The shows are filmed with five HD cameras, and each Web viewer can pick which camera angle he or she wants to watch. The audience can vote on the order of the songs on the set list or make song requests.
For musicians who long viewed it with fear and suspicion as a lawless frontier rife with piracy, the Internet increasingly looks like a friend rather than a foe.
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