An Idea To Ponder.

Dat Factory.

One of the biggest problems about being an avid music fan in New York City is getting blocked out of purchasing tickets to a show. Whenever I hear about a concert that I simply must attend (or if I can’t, as I like to put it, a little piece of my soul will wither), I immediately check to see if there are tickets available on all of the money-eating online vendors. But more recently, New Yorkers seem to be anxious to purchase tickets as soon as they go on sale, and an interesting condition has developed, which I like to call the “early bird” syndrome. A certain common knowledge has been spread amongst consistent concertgoers that unless the tickets are purchased online at the exact time that they go on sale, they will surely be gone after five minutes. Take the Arcade Fire’s five-night residency at Judson Church in Washington Square. Gone in even less than 5 minutes flat. Eager fans were left to stand in the cold on the nights of the shows, hoping that they might score a ticket, but in the end, they wasted their time, having to download the show recorded by a lucky line-waiter.

So how does satellite radio deal with the problem of independent acts whose shows get sold out in the time it takes to click a mouse three times? For XM, the solution comes in the form of a recently announced partnership with the legendary Knitting Factory (both in LA and NYC) to broadcast the shows on their independent music station. Although listeners will not be able to actually see the show itself, they will be treated to the audio being broadcasted live from the venue, giving fans a taste of the musical fire being played by the bands onstage, right as it’s happening. The first band to be broadcast on March 2 is indie megastars Art Brut, who have played the Knitting Factory several times before in New York, giving XM subscribers less of an incentive to venture to the venue again when they can just hear the show on their receivers.

Let’s run through the benefits. Listeners will be able to get access to the concerts that they may be unable to attend, due to location woes or scheduling conflicts (surely someone who can find the time to listen to their XM receiver can attend a concert). XM is getting exclusive content for their channel, and the Knitting Factory is getting a whole lot of attention. The concerts being broadcasted include The Boy Least Likely To (I missed them at the Knitting Factory when I showed up at 10:00 PM and they went on at 8… I’m not bitter, I swear), Portastatic, Chin Up Chin Up, and several others, representing the best in independent music. Plus, when a concert at the venue has sold out at the drop of a mouse click, music lovers will be able to cry next to their receivers, listening to the concert that got away. Personally, I missed a plethora of concerts because I was overseas last semester, and although it most likely would have been 4 in the morning when I could actually hear the concert, knowing that I could listen to a live broadcast would have been nice. I’m sure it will be nice for plenty of people overseas, too.

But there are downsides. The joy of going to a live concert is that you are able to feel the music being created before you, breathing life into songs that you could only vitalize on your own. That’s the essence of a live show; seeing the artist’s creativity and skill at work, and getting a first-hand experience of that production. XM subscribers would not be able to have the same experience; it would be a stunted and under-stimulating one. Also, the artist would probably not receive the same amount of money at the end of the performance, since some might think it more fiscally efficient to listen to the concert as it is being broadcasted instead of purchasing a ticket. And since the bands are predominately independent, they could most likely use those extra ticket sales, miniscule as they may be.

What XM needs to do is to dive into the world of podcasting. If there were live sessions offered by XM of concerts from venues all over the country, even the world, then listeners would be able to listen to the shows on-demand, and not have to conform to the schedule of live broadcasting to enjoy the show. Sure, they might repeat the show later on, but it’s not exactly the same. The listener would still have to tune in at the same time that the broadcast was being made, and would not have an opportunity to have it on their iPod or computer to listen to whenever they pleased. With the scheduling conflict their biggest problem, XM would surely get subscribers that would simply want an MP3 version of the live show. In this way, XM would get more subscribers, the Knitting Factory would still get paid, and the listener would get to hear the concert whenever they would like.

But that’s probably never going to happen. XM bases its broadcasting on live programming (or pre-recorded, but, like, you know what I’m saying), and there would never be an opportunity to turn back time if a show had been missed. XM is definitely delving into a lucrative facet of the music industry, for which there is a high demand, and they would ultimately benefit in the end, both in terms of subscribers and in digging out of that recently announced loss of $6 million. Listeners may be entertained in the short run, but no one is going to run to the radio to listen to a live broadcast of a band. It’s simply boring to sit in front of the radio and imagine what the concert actually looks like. So in the end, XM is getting great programming. The Knitting Factory is becoming more relevant. And for you, well, you have another excuse not to go to that party on Friday night. Just simply respond to the invite, “Art Brut concert tonight, have to stay home.” They’ll get what you mean.