Don’t forget to head over to iTunes to buy a copy of the Official Live Phish app for iPads and iPhones while there’s still a free download code being given out for any show at LivePhish.com. At $3.99 for the app, that technically means that they’re paying you about $6 to download this app and test it out. It’s awesome to see the continued innovations on this front, especially if this means that they’re going to experimenting with live simulcasting shows to app owners. Check out this little ditty in the official announcement (my emphasis added):
“Stream every show from your LivePhish.com Stash. Enjoy free streams of full Phish concerts from the Live Phish Archives, with selections rotating regularly. Tune in to Live Phish Radio for a 24×7 stream from the Live Phish catalog and occasional live simulcasts from Phish Tour.”
The final part of the announcement seems to be missing from the App Store description so maybe that wasn’t supposed to be public yet. At any rate, I’m hitting this app right now and digging in. Drop some comments if you’ve already started playing with it. READ MORE
The Tech and Music Industry blogs are abuzz today with a new and interesting patent that Apple has filed for a “Concert Ticket+” iPhone App for electronic ticketing. CrunchGear has a good explanation of the patent and what it purports to do:
There are a number of potential benefits to using this system. The most obvious benefit is you would no longer have to worry about losing or forgetting your ticket because the NFC technology would allow the iPhone to completely replace the paper ticket. The app would also allow you to easily transfer your tickets to others as well as access more information about the concert or event. From the business perspective, Apple’s e-ticket system would allow companies to target the ticket purchaser with live recordings, exclusive content, and concert refreshments….While none of the technology is particularly new, this system could certainly change the way we buy and use concert tickets in the future….
The idea for “ticketless” electronic ticketing via mobile phones has been floating around for a while, but it’s cool to see some more signs that bring this closer to reality. It’s also interesting to see that Apple made this move before Live Nation or Ticketmaster could lock it down, given that the newly combined Live Nation Entertainment would likely stand to gain the most from this kind of electronic ticketing. Of course, LNE is not a dominant technology company like Apple, so I guess it’s not really surprising how this played out. Either way, it’s cool to think about how this might revolutionize how we buy and use concert and event tickets.
A couple weeks back, a new iPhone app called Music Archive was released on the iTunes App Store that streams concert recordings from the Live Music Archive. I was pretty excited to see this at that time, and I know that many of our readers will also be interested in this app if they haven’t already heard about it.
I’ve not yet posted about it because I decided that I wanted to dig a bit deeper into its development. One of the things that struck me was that the developers are offering it as a paid app, but what they’re tapping into is a database of non-commercial content offered by a non-profit organization (archive.org). Not only that, when I first checked it out, I noticed that they hadn’t directly addressed the issue on their website or in the iTunes store. As such, I not only wanted to get a bit more background on how the project came together, but I also wanted to explore some of the underlying issues related to using the LMA’s non-commercial content for a more commercial enterprise like an iTunes app.
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Hey there, all! So sorry for all the downtime around here. The server we use to host LMB seems to be forgetting to take it’s medication, so we’re going to have to sever our ties with our host in the very near future and move things over to something stable.
In the meantime, I’m going to try to catch with the Joneses around here and get some stuff published that has been dying to get blogged. I was lost last night without the trusty phishtube channel on ustream alive and well. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that feeling.
From PSFK.com…
Taking this online/offline convergence to another level, a fan only known as Jason took a shot at streaming the show live from his iPhone through phishtube, hosted by ustream.com, a free live streaming service. After a few technical issues in the beginning, the stream had a decent image of the stage, accompanied by better-than-decent sound. The number of people streaming last night’s show reached almost 3,500 people – Jones Beach’s capacity is 15,000. On ustream/phishtube you were able to watch a video of the show while reading the live twitter feeds, simultaneously side by side.
Phish Fan Live-Streams Concert via iPhone [PSFK.com]
I’m told he’s hitting the entire tour and last night’s missing extra was just a fluke (he got lost in Philly on the way?). Can’t wait to see what else this band has in store for us. Last night’s Camden show sounds absolutely amazing based on where I’ve made it through (right on “First Tube”) and I really wish I was hitting more shows than the ones I already have lined up. If they keep playing like they are, extras are going to be hard to come by for each show on the tour. And maybe Bonnaroo will sell-out.
The Dead has always been known for being at the forefront of music distribution technology, and they just showed off what they’ve been cooking up for their 2009 tour with the release of an iPhone / iPod Touch App called simply The Dead on the App Store.
From JamBase:
The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart are joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes on their first official Dead tour in over five years. Join Jay Blakesberg, the official tour photographer, and Justin Kreutzmann, the official tour videographer, as they document this fantastic musical journey.
Features include streaming audio from all the shows, video and photo blogs from rehearsals, backstage and concert footage, an interactive Photomosaic of The Dead 2009 tour logo made up of over 500 photographs of the band, news feed with live updates, set lists within seconds of a song being played from each concert, and an MP3 download consisting of two hours of live music from the tour.
All of this for $19.99 exclusively from the App Store. Expect to see many more bands doing this for future tours, especially considering that’s where the bread and better in the industry is headed.
Due to some unforeseen barbecue delays, I was a bit late getting over to the Empty Bottle the other night. It was a reasonable turnout for a Sunday night show — about a hundred metal-hipsters in all their glory. Somehow it made the place seem a bit more dangerous than usual. Anyway, I walked in somewhere near the end of the PIGS set. They sounded loud and angsty, which is pretty much what I was expecting. At least I got to hear a couple tracks.
Next up was Plague Bringer. They started setting up a rather impressive wall of speaker cabinets. Impressive enough that it almost crossed over into the realm of the comical. Anyway, their instrumentation consists of two guitarists and a vocalist. Drums and bass are handled through pre-sequenced stuff on their MacBook. One thing that impressed me is how well the show flowed through the set — having pre-recorded tracks gave it a very choreographed feel, and we were never left standing there during any awkward stage banter or extended tuning breaks. Which is good, because these guys gave a very technically proficient performance. Personally, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but that’s just me — judging from the crowd reaction and the comments overheard around me, they were a big hit.
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