XL Cover Story: Summer Concerts

Now you can replay concert memories instantly on CD

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It used to be that buying a concert T-shirt, with your city listed on the itinerary on the back, was the best way to remember a great show. But a new trend in the music business has fans leaving concerts with a CD recording of the show they just saw. Enter the exit album, the ultimate concert souvenir.

Once primarily the domain of jam bands, who simply applied new CD burning technology to the "taper's section" tradition established by the Grateful Dead, the instant live album concept is being adopted by acts across the board this year.

The world's largest concert promoter, Clear Channel Entertainment is also getting in on the act, testing its Instant Live program in four markets, with plans for a national rollout within weeks. Fans across the country will soon be able to preorder live CDs when they buy their tickets to Clear Channel events. Or they can pick them up at the merchandizing booth on the way out or at area record stores the next day.

As Clear Channel works out the kinks, the live record revolution is already spreading at the grass roots level. This summer, "burn vans" full of equipment able to quickly mass duplicate CDs will join the usual rock 'n' roll caravan of tour buses, U-Haul trucks and groupies' RVs on the concert trail.

For an investment of about $2,500, a band can buy a machine that burns 15 CDs every three minutes. If the shows are any good, the burner can pay for itself out on the road before the guitarist has to change his strings.

The going rate for these immediately available live CDs is $15 for a single disc and $25 for a double. The cover photos are usually also from the show that just took place.

"The hardcore fans love the live CDs," says Sandi Reinlie, whose boss Bob Schneider has started selling set recordings after shows on his current national tour. "Every Bob show is different and he does a lot of songs that aren't on the studio albums." Fans at home soon will be able to purchase the live CDs from Schneider's Web site, www.bobschneidermusic.com.

Bootleg live recordings have been around about as long as microphones and tape machines. But the sound quality of Instant Live CDs is generally superior to pirate recordings because the mix usually comes right off the sound board feed.

Clear Channel also has plans to sell their Instant Live CDs nationally. John Kunz of Waterloo Records says he's in talks with the distributor to carry a select number of these recordings.

Why couldn't this technology have been around when I was a young concertgoer and that first bottle of Southern Comfort went down like Kool-Aid? There was a certain Lynyrd Skynyrd concert circa 1976 that I don't remember much about. I'd have loved to have been able to hear what I missed.