Remember Your Night With The Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies Online Store
A tee-shirt used to be one of the few souvenirs a concertgoer could return with. For a time, promoters tried to interest fans with books similar to Playbill at a live theater production or a scorecard at a sports event. Then with decades of bootlegs being traded through the web rather than sold, musicians and music companies realized their golden opportunity.
Digitally recording the concert and running the file through high speed burners would allow them to slap a label on the discs and sell them to attendees. Rather than the inventory carrying costs of any tee-shirts or lighters or other gadgets, savvy businesspeople knew they just needed to pack a couple of pieces of equipment and create an incredibly high margin item.
Fans were happy because the music company had not sanitized the recording. Artists were happy because they collected a larger royalty than normal — and faster too. And the businesspeople were excited because they could not only sell the recording, but they could pre-sell the CDs in the hours leading up to the show, reducing the inevitable post-concert crush of people swarming a booth while clutching credit cards and riding a post-show high.
I've used similar services with several artsts, and while tee-shirts are nice, an actual recording of the show far surpasses the memories silk screened logos on cotton provides.
Canada's quirky but unusually talented Barenaked Ladies have ratcheted the process even more. Now their official website not only includes the usually fluff, photos and CDs for sales, but there are actual recordsings from each stop on many tours. The only trick, of course, is knowing which one to buy, especially since only completists will buy more than one from any single tour.
Despite this relatively minor complication (and who wants to promote, "Buy this one. It's where Ed flubbed the words!")the site is exceptionally easy to navigate and very pretty pretty. Choosing is hard, getting to the spot to choose is a snap.
Shoppers can buy a concert as a physical CD delivered to their home (for a little extra fee, 'natch) or as a download straight to their computer. Choosing the latter also gives you access to a graphics file that includes everything one would expect from a commercial CD including high quality photo, track list and the tunes.
I had used the same company to buy a Peter Frampton CD at one of his shows and received none of the graphics so there is a certain appeal to ordering online. You don't get to relive the concert driving home, but you can hold the hour or two it takes for you to get home and get online. Along with the graphics, the tracks are clearly identified with title when you download, rather than saying "Track 1" or "Track 2" in the information section. Nothing is more annoying on an iPod than having an artist playing a new song or cover you don't know the name of and leaving that information there. Doing so is like going to a sports game and hearing, "Number 42 is really good, isn't he?" Uh yeah, he is, and if you actually followed the sport, you would know his name!
With a credit card, Barenaked Ladies treats the purchase like any other online software purchase and offers an immediate download. Depending on your connection speed, you can be listening to your new music in minutes.
Wearing the tee-shirt is optional.
The Bottom Line, Clicks and All
An exceptionally powerful reminder of your night out with the Barenaked Ladies. You can also purchase shows from multiple tours and stops.
Five Things To Remember From This Review
1. Ordering and navigation is easy.
2. Anyone can purchase ("The show? Oh yeah, I was there. 2nd row. Listen to this part...")
3. Immediate fulfillment via download is available.
4. Orders come with graphics and a track list.
5. You can also order a physical to be mailed to you if you don't want to download.
