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The veteran
"The fact that she didn’t actually sing shouldn’t have surprised anyone, she never has at any of her shows. She is a performer, she puts on a show that wouldn’t be possible if the sang. If I wanted to see a singer, I would go to a Broadway show.”
Oh - wait there's more from the 'fan.' The fan continued: “Anyways, I love
Ref: National Ledger
In other
Irish bookies Paddy Power are offering odds on which song Mick and the boys will open with. You’ll get even money if you bet on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” but Power isn’t too sweet on “Brown Sugar,” offering a nice price of 12-1. The Irish will bet on anything, it seems!
Perhaps Power will take bets on how fast the Police will sell out their two Irish shows this fall. Sting and his mates will announce on Friday that they’ll play at Croke Park in October, capacity 80,000 for each gig.
The Sunday Business Post reports that the band will initially sell tickets for the first show only, but that a second date has also been slotted in.
Ref: Irishaboard
By ALAN SHECKTER - Buzz Editor
Chico Enterprise-Record
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.'s Big Room, which produces the "Sierra Center Stage" public TV series and has been the venue of choice for several recording projects will welcome guitarist Tommy Emmanuel for a three-day residency in October.
The world-class player -- Chet Atkins called him "probably the greatest finger-picker in the world today" -- will perform certain sell-outs Oct. 8 to 10 at the Big Room.
Aside from performances that a local audience of few hundred will enjoy, plans are in the works for many products to come out of the performances, according to Big Room General manager Bob Littell.
"Tommy has chosen Sierra Nevada to shoot his definitive, live hi-def DVD concert," Littell said. "This is going to be his state of the state live concert video."
In addition, Littell said, it's hoped the sessions will produce an additional music-and-interview special PBS stations would for their pledge drives, a new episode of "Sierra Center Stage" and an instructional guitar video.
Fellow Australian act The Bluehouse, an acoustic duo, will join Emmanuel at these shows. The Bluehouse, Jacqueline Walter and Bernadette Carroll, have often performed with Emmanuel and locals may remember the duo making a surprise appearance at last year's California WorldFest in Grass Valley to help Emmanuel close out the fest.
"We're going to film all three of their opening sets and they hope to get a marketing product also," Littell said. "There'll be a whole lot of product in one fell swoop."
Emmanuel will once again be one of the top-billed performers at WorldFest, set for July 12-15 in Grass Valley. (Visit www.worldfest.net.)
Big Room joins KZFR for live audio feeds
Beginning with Tuesday's concert with veteran Texas swing band Asleep At The Wheel, Chico's KZFR-FM and Nevada City's KVMR-FM -- both community radio stations -- will begin broadcasting selecting Sierra Nevada Big Room concerts.
Big Room General Manager Bob Littell said since both stations now stream their programming on the Internet, "we're actually going global."
Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m., with "a 7:15 pre-game show," Littell said.
Ref: ChicoER
Apple is entering this year's round of talks with major labels in the US over iTunes distribution rights.
Talks over the Apple iTunes Store begun just weeks after EMI threw a curveball at the major labels with its decision to make its iTunes' catalogue available for sale online free of digital rights management (DRM).
While last year's meetings over the Apple iTunes Store and music labels saw Apple CEO Steve Jobs spurning record company demands for flexible pricing, Apple in the post-EMI-DRM decision may be more willing to negotiate.
Apple wants majors to emulate EMI and abandon DRM, at least in so far as iTunes Store sales for permanent collections. (DRM will continue to have a place in subscription-based and some mobile music services for the foreseeable future).
Jobs isn't expecting the world to turn upside down. When the EMI decision to release music in high quality format free of DRM was announced, Jobs said he hoped to offer half of all songs sold in iTunes DRM-free by the end of the year.
Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan -- an expert in the digital music field -- observed: "Jobs suggested at the EMI launch that he expected approximately half of catalogue to be available DRM free by year end. That's a conservative estimate that essentially covers EMI and the Indies. Jobs is hoping that he's under-promising with a view to over-delivering - a tactic at which he is adept."
The analyst believes it may be time to move away from set single price models in iTunes. Variable pricing has served its purpose, he said, adding, "both Apple and the labels would benefit from a more flexible approach to pricing.
Bringing a consumer electronics pricing mentality to selling music only works so far. Not all music is worth the same. Just as Apple wouldn't want to be forced to sell a generation one iPod for the same price as a video iPod, the music industry doesn't want to sell 70's album tracks for the same price as a top 20 single."
Mulligan believes the new framework in which DRM-free tracks cost £0.20 (US$0.40) more than the previously available versions has "opened the doors to variable pricing", and has also given Apple a bargaining position for its latest chats with the labels.
Apple has been accused of locking iTunes and iPod customers into its ecosystem, as songs sold through iTunes can only be played on an iPod. (Or burnt to a CD and ripped back to a computer DRM-free).
The move to abandon DRM for permanent sales through iTunes -- or at least offer DRM-free tracks as a higher-priced product -- would also free Apple from threats that it will be forced to license its own DRM system, FairPlay.
According to analyst Mulligan, labels also want to be able to offer a wider variety of product bundles through iTunes, such as combined video and music bundles.
"The digital download model doesn't need to limit itself to trying to replicate the CD in digital form. Just as the US$0.99 uniform price point has served its purpose well, so has the digital track. Now the market is more than ready to accommodate product and format experimentation."
For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2007 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.
Ref: PC World
