No, it's not Daft Punk, but the robot-suit-clad techno heroes' influence is evident in the choices of artists for MySpace.com's second concert tour.
The tour, produced by concert powerhouse Live Nation, is slated to take place in March in a number of U.S. and Canadian cities. Headlining the tour will be French electronic duo Justice. Joining that act on select nights will be a combination of the electronic and hip-hop acts Diplo, DJ Medhi, Chromeo, Busy P, and Fancy.
The first show will kick off on March 3 in Austin, Texas, and will hit a total of 18 cities, winding up in Los Angeles on March 31. Interested fans will be able to buy tickets from January 9 to 12 through the MySpace Music Tour site, as well as through the venues and local ticket outlets.
MySpace's first concert tour, which featured a number of 'emo' and pop-punk artists, took place in October and November. Additionally, the News Corp.-owned site throws a series of "Secret Shows" concerts in cities worldwide, as well as a number of other live music events.
Music is true to MySpace's roots--the social-networking site gained initial buzz as a hub for indie music, where fans could discover and listen to new bands. It now counts more than 6 million bands among its user profiles--but the concerts are also a strategic move.
As the social-networking field grows increasingly crowded, MySpace has the advantage of big-media muscle and a reputation for pop-culture influence as a tool to keep it above the fray. This has meant not only high-profile music projects, but also original video programming and youth activism campaigns.
Justice, the French duo headlining MySpace's concert tour
(Credit: Justice's MySpace page)The dates for the March concert tour are as follows:
March 3: Austin (Stubbs)
March 4: Dallas (Palladium Ballroom)
March 6: Orlando, Fla. (The Club at Firestone)
March 9: Baltimore (Sonar)
March 10: Philadelphia (The Electric Factory)
March 11: New York (Madison Square Garden)
March 12: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
March 15: Boston (Paradise)
March 16: Montreal, Quebec (Cepsum)
March 17: Toronto, Ontario (The Docks)
March 19: Detroit (Royal Oak Music Hall)
March 20: Chicago (Riviera Theater)
March 22: Denver (Ogden Theater)
March 24: Seattle (Showbox SoDo)
March 25: Vancouver, British Columbia (Commodore)
March 26: Portland, Ore. (Roseland Theater)
March 27: San Francisco (Concourse Design Center)
March 31: Los Angeles (Mayan Theatre)
The dam's breaking open: first Prince released a record as an insert in daily newspaper. The Eagles went direct through Wal-Mart. Radiohead announced plans to release its new album without the assistance of a major label, and rumors about Oasis and a couple of other British bands followed.
On Monday, Trent Reznor posted a gleeful announcement that Nine Inch Nails' record contract had ended, and that he would be experimenting with direct distribution to fans in 2008. This isn't surprising, given that Trent recently told fans at an Australian concert to steal his music. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Madonna is about to leave Warner Brothers and sign a $120 million deal with Live Nation, the concert promoter and owner of many large venues around the U.S. (Live Nation was spun out of Clear Channel when the radio giant got out of the concert business.)
The Madonna deal would be a little different than the do-it-yourself approaches being taken by Radiohead and NIN. Instead of no label at all, Madonna would actually be signing what's known as a "360 deal," in which her label gets a cut not only of record sales, but of merchandise and concert grosses. Only the "label" isn't a traditional label at all, but rather a company whose specialty is concert promotion. But the business model's probably going to be similar to the label-less acts: sell the album cheap, or give parts of it away, and charge a premium for the concert experience.
As I've said before, this approach might make sense for established artists, but if giving recorded music away becomes the norm, the road from local hero to rock star could be a lot harder. Beginning musicians tend not to have a lot of resources, and need a label (or some other backer) to help fund early tours. If labels have nothing to sell, who picks up the slack? Concert promoters and management agencies? Perhaps, but the economics are different--they can't rely on a highly profitable hit to fund the ten unprofitable artists still under development.
(Side question: can Madonna really play the guitar, as the picture in this article implies? Or does the soundguy turn her channel all the way down?)
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