File category Eduardo Alonso
The concert at home
By Fernando Mexia - Columnists , Eduardo Alonso - 21/03/2009
Eduardo Alonso, continues his music blog Glue
The concert at home
My first two posts to the pen were perhaps too bitter, so this time I want to focus on a more positive view. The Internet age has been treated like hell in the music industry. It is true that the Internet has provided an open bar music "free", but also created new forms of distribution and even return to do business. One such initiative is Moogis , a paid service for issuing (or streaming internet jargon) of videos of concerts. This project is the brainchild of Butch Trucks, drummer of the legendary American group The Allman Brothers Band . Not the Rolling Stones, but this band also takes forty-year career and sold a handful of albums in the seventies with hits like Jessica and Ramblin 'Man
Far from ankylosed in the past, Allman Brothers has been a very interested in finding new ways to bring their music to their fans. He was one of the pioneers in the series of recordings Instant Live and now Butch Trucks launched Moogis. The subscription to this site costs $ 125 and provides access to dozens of concerts by the Allman Brothers on video and audio. And what is more interesting, lets see live concert series that the band is offering this month at the Beacon Theatre in New York, where concerts held every year since 1989, a tradition for his followers and the world of rock in general. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, artists like Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter or even Bruce Willis, were invited onto the stage with the band, making each of the fifteen concerts in this series a unique experience.
For me as a good fan of this training is very exciting to have the opportunity to see all the shows on my TV at any time. Both the sound and picture are high quality and is comparable to any TV.
For now, Moogis is a test project and its future is uncertain. There is no big company behind it, but if you get a sufficient number of subscriptions Butch Trucks try to incorporate different groups and broadcast live concerts from various clubs and theaters in the United States.
Of course, this concept is not new. In the Netherlands, Fabchannel did a great job recording and relaying hundreds of concerts held in the halls of Amsterdam Paradiso and Melkweg. After ten years, closed its web Fabchannel few days ago (March 13). These high-quality recordings served for many unknown bands could be promoted worldwide. The web is now a really interesting letter which explains the lack of agreement with the record has prompted its closure.
The record remains committed to sell records, see the Internet as a threat and are blind to the opportunities that the network can offer beyond Myspace profiles. Perhaps one day the lords of the tie is removed the bandage from the eyes: Internet does not bite. While going to see a concert at Moogis.
The rule of "tickets"
By Fernando Mexia - Columnists , Eduardo Alonso , music - 16/02/2009
Eduardo Alonso, continues his music blog Glue
The prayer card scam
Most music fans have ever gone through the trauma of buying concert tickets through services like Ticketmaster with the anxiety that the precious passes would be exhausted in minutes. Repeated presses the F5 key, crashed servers, web pages and white lines form a communicating your frustration known by many. The situation does not improve.
This week it became official the merger between the giant Ticketmaster ticket sales and the largest concert promotion company Live Nation . The resulting company, Live Nation Entertainment, will be owned 50% by the two companies and will be worth 2,500 million dollars. Fans of live music welcome this news with regret, as it reduces the scope for competition and allows the increased ticket prices continue.
In addition to saving 40 million dollars annually, with this merger Live Nation and Ticketmaster promise to sell more tickets and improve the process making it easier and transparent. Difficult. The market for ticket sales is rotten. The purchase of tickets for big events is a painful process by which consumers pay fees and expenses of distribution celebrities can make the price of the tickets more than 10%.
In America, Ticketmaster, or "Ticketbastard" as many dub the company holds a virtual monopoly position because it sells 80% of tickets to music and sporting events. In recent years it has expanded internationally by taking control of ticket sales in 20 countries.
In the mid-nineties, Pearl Jam tried to fight this monopoly . In 1994, the Seattle band even managed to cancel a tour after Ticketmaster's refusal to cut his commission to two dollars. Seattle band finally had to give because Ticketmaster controls virtually all medium and large venues capacity. Currently the commissions exceed ten dollars. I recently bought tickets for a concert in New York . The total charges were $ 20 Ticketmaster, 20% of the entry.
The business does not end there. Last year the company acquired Ticketmaster Ticket scalping TicketsNow for $ 265 million. This purchase was a way to legally sell tickets for a price well above the initial. The seller at the box office to legally control the resale on the street. This practice has recently provoked the ire of Bruce Springsteen, who publicly denounced this conflict of interests after the chaos in the sale of tickets for their U.S. tour this spring. Seconds after the start of the sale, the tickets was exhausted and went to Ticketmaster customers to TicketsNow, where hundreds of tickets were available at prices between two hundred and one thousand dollars. A day after the CEO of Ticketmaster, Irving Azoff, was forced to send a note of apology .
This situation seems unlikely that the alliance between Live Nation and Ticketmaster will greatly improve the market for ticket sales. In fact, both companies have worked together over the last ten years under a partnership agreement.
The merger will be completed later this year, although there are U.S. senators have expressed concern and willingness to investigate the operation to monitor compliance antitrust rules. The business daily Financial Times predicts that the opposition from artists and fans will be strong regulators in Europe.
Meanwhile the price of tickets for major concerts is still unstoppable rise. In Europe this year to see Tina Turner, AC / DC, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen costs between 70 and 100 euros. Even in some cases, like the Eagles, the most expensive ticket can soar to 180 euros. Perhaps this crisis will not reach market until ten years from now when these big names have been removed and just have artists can fill a stadium and large capacities.
Photo: stock.xchng
Canned musical emotions
By Fernando Mexia - Eduardo Alonso , music - 07/02/2009
By Eduardo Alonso, journalist.
The imperfection of music
Beyond sporting performance, the spectacle surrounding the Super Bowl controversy always generates some encouraging talks in the days of office. A few years ago there was talk of centimeters of skin exhibited over Janet Jackson, this year the discussion has focused on the performance of Jennifer Hudson .
The singer, who rose to fame in the third season of "American Idol", was responsible for interpreting the U.S. anthem before the game. This performance was especially emotional because Hudson made her first public appearance since the murders of her mother, brother and nephew last October. To ensure that the timing was perfect, the show's producers recommended that Hudson did playback. This was the case. Hudson sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a touching and perfect, but her voice was not heard live. What we heard was a previous recording, which incidentally, is now available on iTunes for a dollar.
Of course, playback performances in such shows are common and cause scandal and in times of Milli Vanilli. However, I was struck by the ease with which Rickey Minor, the producer of the pre-game show and director of "American Idol", has defended the playback. Minor stated that "the playback is the right thing to do" and that "would not recommend any artist sing live because the slightest mistake would ruin the performance." More surprising, many bloggers and columnists have advocated this course of action, including the editor of Billboard magazine.
This normalization of playback is worrying. Producers and industry bosses seem to be moving towards making the robot singer. An artist without fault, not tune any note and acts as the metronome for the script of the show will not suffer delays. Therefore, in the recording studio is becoming more widespread and accepted use of software that corrects errors in real time tuning.
This way of working is to devalue further the role of artists and an industry in crisis, which has failed to adapt their business model. It is a way to precook the emotions of a live performance with such a seemingly adequate to serve an audience that is consumer and viewer.
No matter how perfect it is, what value is a performance in playback? Scarce. The authenticity of a creation in time gives way to a prefabricated product. If we accept the playback, why not exhibit copies of Guernica in any museum in the world?
It is also ironic that need to present a perfect product in a time when music is consumed by such dubious quality media such as mp3 players and mobile phones. Accept the imperfection of live performance. Accept the possibility that the singer can recite the lyrics wrong and breathless. Before giving the play the jukebox, I prefer hearing voices worn by age or nervous about a young stage. The imperfection is unique.
Nevertheless, the public wants to see live music. The demand for tickets and the subsequent resale is uncontrollable and this week has created a dispute between Bruce Springsteen and the ticketing company Ticketmaster. But this is a very complicated issue that is best left to a future post.
Playback of Jennifer Hudson in Super Bowl
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