Earlier this month, EMI discussed plans to potentially offer concert goers digital recordings of the show on CD, DVD, or digital device as they leave the venue. Today, concert promoter Live Nation and iTunes debuted an exclusive partnership with iTunes, pairing the largest events promoter with the largest music retailer.
Starting today, live performances from Live Nation wired venues appear on iTunes, available as either audio or video -- depending on the show. You can see the selection here (iTunes Link), and while the library is currently pretty small, we imagine more and more shows will be added, especially as more Live Nation venues become wired for in-house recording and mixing.
Although individual artists and some smaller labels have offered same-day digital copies or CD or DVD recordings of live shows (and also paid downloads via FLAC or MP3 from the band's website) for years -- Bare Naked Ladies and Tori Amos are just two examples -- larger promoters and record labels haven't really embraced taking live performance digital. With the technology now making it easy to record and mix shows as they happen, it seems silly not to potentially capitalize on another avenue of revenue, especially when your industry is losing profits.