Picture this: You’re at a concert, pumping your fist in synch with the lead guitarist’s latest floor-shaking chord. You bump and grind to the beat, quickly shifting positions as another crazed fan leaps into the ever-groping sea of fingertips. Everyone around you is screaming the same head-banging lyrics, moshing to the same maddening rhythm, as you succumb to the allure of the deafening decibels.
The best part? It’s all on tape.
Welcome to See A Show, Buy A Show (SASBAS), eMusicLive’s innovative new program that allows performance patrons to purchase just-played tunes within minutes of a concert’s conclusion, whether at the venue or in the comfort of your own home. Despite its inception last March, the technology — which draws from a variety of sound feeds to produce CD-quality tracks — already is forming a niche within the digital music community. It currently collaborates with seven participating venues nationwide, including Chicago’s Schubas, Metro and Double Door.
But let’s face it: The concept itself is far from revolutionary. Prior to the launch of SASBAS, Digital Cable Network (DCN), founded in 1989, was the pioneer in take-it-home performance technology. The company, which drew from nearly 30 locations, broadcast live shows via webcam, allowing users to watch purchased concerts on their computers as they unfolded. Unfortunately, DCN was inherently flawed.
“All of their concerts were only temporary,” said eMusicLive president Scott Ambrose Reilly of the network. “(After the webcast), they just disappeared.”
Help was on the way. A private investment firm dedicated to preserving such “lost performances” purchased DCN and eMusic, an iTunes-eque site for all things independent. The firm combined the two companies to create eMusicLive, the ostensible savior of in-house recordings and SASBAS’s parent company.
In mere months the technology spread across the country — participating venues include North Carolina’s Cat’s Cradle, Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig and San Diego’s Casbah — and the program has met with resounding success. Though post-show sales at the venue have been low, online revenues have been fruitful, and eMusic’s digital music market boasts more than one million purchases per month — a figure second only to iTunes.
“Ironically,” Reilly mused, “some artists are getting more download royalties (from eMusic) than gig salaries.”
This trend proves most prevalent in Chicago, which houses more SASBAS-ready venues than any other city in America. Notorious for their dedication to independent music, Metro and Schubas offer several downloadable shows per month — upcoming events include Maritime (Nov. 7), Aspects of Physics (Nov. 7) and The Tossers (Nov. 18) — while Double Door prides itself on benefiting both consumers and local talent.
“SASBAS can be a really great thing,” said Joe Carsello, Double Door’s eMusicLive field representative, “especially for smaller bands.”
And how. Unlike its more mainstream-focused competitors, eMusicLive opts to promote lesser-known acts, thereby thrusting oft-ignored talent into a so-called “e-spotlight.” The company’s Web site, which receives millions of hits each month, serves as a launching pad for bands once constrained by a limited audience and a retailer for groups traditionally overlooked.
“I’ve listened to (that kind of music) for a long time,” said Weinberg freshman and music aficionado Brendon Lavernia. “And I think it’s great that people are starting to recognize quality.”
“We like to be different,” Reilly said, comparing SASBAS to more conventional music markets. “It’s not about getting the new track from Outkast or Coldplay.”
Nor is that notion even feasible. One downside to offering such an expansive service is that eMusicLive lacks digital rights management, allowing users free reign over any songs they download. Granted, in order to access eMusic’s library, consumers must purchase a subscription — either Basic ($9.99 per month/40 downloads), Plus ($14.99 per month/65 downloads) or Premium ($19.99 per month/90 downloads) — but there’s no guarantee they won’t reproduce their newly obtained singles. Moreover, the program provides MP3 tracks which, unlike most iTunes downloads, are somewhat conducive to illegal file-sharing and/or CD-burning distribution. Not surprisingly, such legal disparities deter major record labels from using the technology, thus depriving the system’s subscribers of mainstream live performances. Somewhere, Ashlee Simpson sighs in relief.
“We’ve gotten acts like Miles Davis and Ray Charles, but we usually don’t do deals with big labels,” Reilly said.
SASBAS naysayers aren’t limited to pre-teen-pandering pop icons, however. Local indie band Urge Overkill, which reunited at the Casbah after a nine-year hiatus, declined to use the program during their San Diego gig, citing concern that “the performance would be too rough.”
“It was our first show back together,” explained manager Matt Suhar. “We weren’t sure about the sound, and we wanted to get the kinks out.”
Band apprehension, however, didn’t stop bootleggers. Despite a lack of legitimate SASBAS recordings, fan-recorded concert tracks surfaced, making the “rough” show readily accessible without any monetary benefit to the band.
Clearly, Urge Overkill learned a valuable lesson. When given the opportunity to participate in SASBAS before a later show, Suhar’s response was a definitive “Fuck, yeah.”
“There are so many people out there recording illegally anyway,” Suhar said. “We figured, ‘Why not make some money?'”
Another Chicago-based band, 56 Hope Road, who played a SASBAS gig at the Metro, also stressed the program’s financial returns, noting that fans are more likely to purchase a group’s CD while still “under the effects of the performance,” according to band member, Greg Fundis. Music sales immediately following the show reduce the time patrons must spend in search of a band’s live release.
“You have dedicated fans that will seek out the live recording, do the homework and (purchase the music) whether it comes out the next day or the next year,” Fundis said. “This service makes it easier and more accessible for everyone.”
Suhar added that SASBAS is a great way to “give fans something to check out” prior to the release of a CD. Often, music lovers will be more inclined to spend money on a group they have listened to online, especially when the artists have the guts to retail raw recordings through a system like eMusic.
“The recording showcases everything about the performances, mistakes and all,” warned Nicole Dejanovich, Metro’s eMusic field representative. “Basically, bands that suck live shouldn’t do it.”
Then again, part of SASBAS’s appeal is its untainted “audio snapshots,” complete with band-member mishaps, impromptu audience remarks and everything in between.
“Sure, you can get live recordings of bands you love,” Reilly said, “but it’s more about capturing the individual experience.”4
Medill freshman Dan Macsai is a PLAY writer. He can be reached at [email protected].
