culture, politics, commentary, criticism

Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Clear Channel: The Bootleg Sessions. Clear Channel is generating new sources of revenue for music acts — by creating instant, quasi-legal* CD-R recordings of live concerts that you can buy on your way out of the venue. The entire concert an audience has just witnessed, including the stage banter between songs, is preserved as a souvenir for each night's fans.

Because they create new cash streams for artists, Clear Channel is simultaneously devising new ways to control dissent (
Pitchfork Media):
Given that it's rock and roll, there's also a risk that an artist-- in a Replacements-like case of career suicide-- could record comments against Clear Channel or one of its properties. [Clear Channel Executive Vice-President Steve] Simon [the project director for the Instant Live program], allows that "there are all sorts of conceivable ways that one might deal with that," but he didn't consider it likely: "If an artist goes through the paces of doing this with us, they're doing it because they want to sell discs. They're doing it because we have a relationship with them, or have created a relationship... By the time you've been through all that I don't think there's much of a concern that the band's going to then get up there and call you names."
You hear that, rock and roll rebels? No name-calling. Clear Channel said so. If you want concert promotion, nationwide airplay, or Instant Live souvenir bootlegs, get on your knees and kiss the hem of your relationship with Clear Channel.

*The thorny issue of compensation for cover songs — songs written by someone other than the artists performing them — is sidestepped by Clear Channel according to this report.
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