2008 Woodie Awards
Thankful for Livedownloads.com
Chris Essig/Online Interactive Editor
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Writers Outlet
- Page 1 of 1
With music-selling sites like Amazon.com "Amazon.com and Wherehouse.com "Wherehouse.com growing exponentially in the last five years, let alone consumer electronic store sites like Bestbuy.com "Bestbuy.com and Circuitcity.com "Circuitcity.com which also sell CDs, among other things, artists almost have to be online now to remain competitive.
However, if you're a band that improvises, the above-listed sites probably aren't for you; your focus is the live show, obviously, not the album. That is where Livedownloads.com "Livedownloads.com comes into play.
Livedownloads.com offers buyers a chance to buy live shows, not just albums, for around $10. And if your one of the site's more popular bands (Widespread Panic, the String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, etc.), almost all of their shows from the past five years are on the site. What this means is that I can go to a show and a few days later I can buy it on this site. The shows are mastered directly from the soundboard as well, meaning it sounds as good as it would if it was released, and it is half the price.
Obviously the site doesn't have every artist known to man, and not every artist on the site has an extensive catalog available to the public. The target audience is and will remain to be fans of "jam band" music as collecting shows as been a notable attribute within the genre since its birth. But some may be surprised at its diversity. The site offers a Cannibal Corpse album, for instance, and a number of indie artists' shows from Lollapalooza 2006 including Cursive, Stars, and the Hold Steady.
Its biggest perk to music fans is the price. Most shows on the site are between two and four discs and range from $10 to $13 for MP3 format and $16 to $19 for FLAC format. Considering we pay more than that for just one CD these days, this site is a steal. Individual songs are also available for a $1 if they are under 12 minutes. If they are over, you'll have to buy the whole show. This may be a problem for some of the artists on the site, but if the show was good enough, why not just buy the whole thing?
In addition, there are no taxes or shipping and handling fees attached because the user downloads the songs directly to their hard drive. This is another obvious advantage over the outdated CD (R.I.P.), particularly if you buy that CD online.
To top the package off, the site also provides printable CD labels for the album's booklet and the discs themselves. Here are a couple of examples:
Booklet. "Booklet
Discs. " Discs
Clearly those are much more fashionable then the old-school permanent marker (R.I.P.).
So thank you Livedownloads.com for changing the music business and keeping us nostalgic.
However, if you're a band that improvises, the above-listed sites probably aren't for you; your focus is the live show, obviously, not the album. That is where Livedownloads.com "Livedownloads.com comes into play.
Livedownloads.com offers buyers a chance to buy live shows, not just albums, for around $10. And if your one of the site's more popular bands (Widespread Panic, the String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, etc.), almost all of their shows from the past five years are on the site. What this means is that I can go to a show and a few days later I can buy it on this site. The shows are mastered directly from the soundboard as well, meaning it sounds as good as it would if it was released, and it is half the price.
Obviously the site doesn't have every artist known to man, and not every artist on the site has an extensive catalog available to the public. The target audience is and will remain to be fans of "jam band" music as collecting shows as been a notable attribute within the genre since its birth. But some may be surprised at its diversity. The site offers a Cannibal Corpse album, for instance, and a number of indie artists' shows from Lollapalooza 2006 including Cursive, Stars, and the Hold Steady.
Its biggest perk to music fans is the price. Most shows on the site are between two and four discs and range from $10 to $13 for MP3 format and $16 to $19 for FLAC format. Considering we pay more than that for just one CD these days, this site is a steal. Individual songs are also available for a $1 if they are under 12 minutes. If they are over, you'll have to buy the whole show. This may be a problem for some of the artists on the site, but if the show was good enough, why not just buy the whole thing?
In addition, there are no taxes or shipping and handling fees attached because the user downloads the songs directly to their hard drive. This is another obvious advantage over the outdated CD (R.I.P.), particularly if you buy that CD online.
To top the package off, the site also provides printable CD labels for the album's booklet and the discs themselves. Here are a couple of examples:
Booklet. "Booklet
Discs. " Discs
Clearly those are much more fashionable then the old-school permanent marker (R.I.P.).
So thank you Livedownloads.com for changing the music business and keeping us nostalgic.
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