Instant live CDs of a concert? Testing to begin in Boston

By Steve Morse, Globe Staff, 2/7/2003

xperiments are rife in the music business these days -- and Boston will be a test market for one of the most novel of them. Clear Channel Concerts, the nation's largest concert promoter, has ambitious plans to record live CDs of its shows and sell them to patrons within five minutes after those shows end. Clear Channel is targeting Boston as the first site for the new plan, according to sources within the organization.

Multiple CD burners would be brought in, and the live CDs would probably sell for around $15 in the same way that T-shirts and other merchandise can be purchased after concerts. No one knows what the demand would be, but the project is expected to begin at club shows within a couple of months, then be refined and work its way up to the amphitheater level, though that may not happen until next year, sources say.

Clear Channel spokeswoman Pam Fallon would not confirm or deny word of the CD burning and sales plan. ''All I can say is that we're working on a series of initiatives in the next couple of months,'' she said.

Clear Channel vice president Steve Simon, who works at Cambridge's Clear Channel office and has helped manage the platinum-selling band Boston, is said to be heading the project.

This story ran on page C3 of the Boston Globe on 2/7/2003.
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