Simple Minds have joined forces with Germany’s leading online music live recording company Concert Online, to release live concert recordings on customized USB sticks directly after their live concerts on their current European and forthcoming highly anticipated Graffiti Soul UK Tour.
The live recording USB sticks were initially soft-launched during the Simple Minds’ Graffiti Soul European tour, in Vienna on 3rd November. The “concert sticks” will roll out during the bands’ UK tour that starts at the Newcastle Metro Arena on Monday 30th November.
Fans who attend any of the dates will be able to purchase the live recording memory sticks directly after the concerts and can download the encores once they install the memory stick into their USB port on their computers. To download the encores, the user can automatically hyperlink to www.concert-online.com and can enter serial code clearly marked on the USB concert sticks.
Minutes after the last cymbal of the evening has been thrashed, fans will be able to pay a visit to the venue merchandise stall, where they can purchase an elegantly packaged box container and tour branded USB stick containing a recording of the show they’ve just experienced.
“But that’s not all,” says Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr, “no matter where you are in the world, you can go online and download the songs from that show, or you can have the stick packaged and sent directly to you. It’s amazing.”
Concert Online offers concerts in various downloadable formats or on branded USB sticks (Concert Sticks) in collectible boxes. The company believes that when a music fan experiences a concert that they really enjoy, they’ll probably want a record of the concert, so they can hear it over and over again. Mobile phones record poor quality, so if music fans are looking for spectacular sound quality, the concert sticks make a collectable keepsake and souvenir. The USB concert sticks can be purchased instantly and make CD and DVD burning redundant.
The retail selling price for the live recording sticks on Simple Minds’ current European tour retails for 25 Euros, while the asking approximate selling price on their forthcoming UK dates is expected to retail for £25. The USB stick stores up to 1 gigabyte of storage space.
Concert Online offers the following formats to their end-users – MP3s (usually 320 kbit/s), high-quality DivX AVI files, h.264-encoded MP4s and large-capacity *.iso files that can be easily burnt by the purchaser.
On a recent tour of Italy, Kerr reflects upon the reaction of the memory sticks from the Italian fans as bordering on “quasi ecstatic.”
Christian Reimann, VP of Marketing and Sales for Concert Online says, “The storage capacity of the USB sticks has the potential for bands to expand beyond songs performed during that evening’s particular set. Simple Minds are the kind of band who tends to vary their set by three or four songs each night. If you are a committed Simple Minds fan, you’ll want to collect the memory sticks from the entire tour. In addition to that, we always try to offer priceless extras for the real fans, such as exclusive backstage video or still photo material, interviews etc. It’s a music fan’s wet dream.”
Simple Minds are adamant that as their European tour progresses and the live recording USB sticks stack up, wherever possible they intend to include sound check songs that might not feature in that evening’s set. During the sound checks, Simple Minds quite often tend to perform rarities that usually never get performed during the actual concert.
On a recent USB stick live recording from the band’s Acona, Italy concert, the stick included a recording of the song Light Travels, played for the first time outside of a rehearsal room but not on the actual night. The band road tested the song and eventually held it back so they could debut it at their Rome concert the following night.
What really gets Kerr excited about the instant USB stick live recordings is that the fans get to experience the spontaneity as well as the warts and all of the live performances. “It’s something you don’t tend to get on a conventional studio album,” reflects Kerr.
The USB concert sticks contain up to 2.5 hours of music, however, Kerr already has plans to expand on the content. “We’d love to include poster artwork, interviews and much more information on the USB sticks,” says Kerr. “Should concert sticks prove successful, we’re looking into donating a decent percentage of whatever profits to a Simple Minds affiliated charity. The Mandela charity comes to mind, as does for obvious reasons perhaps a children’s hospital ward in Glasgow – it is the city that gave birth to Simple Minds after all.”
Order Simple Minds “Live Concert” USB Stick
The Concert Online team has taken its mobile audio recording unit and joined Simple Minds’ “Graffiti Soul Tour 2009″ to record every single evening concert live. The resulting live recordings are split into individual tracks on-site, labeled, and converted to high-quality MP3s (320 kBit/s).
Order the audio recordings in MP3 format on a Concert Stick directly after the show right here – www.concert-online.com or order direct from the Simple Minds Concert Store -
http://concert-online.com/en/shop/29377/Simple-Minds.html?X-LT&x-nl=nl-091103
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