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"I do think that rock music, when its engines are roaring, makes you want to run down the road, sell your house, call your mother and change the world. Pop tells you everything is OK." -- Bono, 2000 |
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"I do think that rock music, when its engines are roaring, makes you want to run down the road, sell your house, call your mother and change the world. Pop tells you everything is OK." -- Bono, 2000 |
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Column: off the record...,vol. 9-384
@U2,
November 15, 2009
2004 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb What does this mean for the past decade of U2? I'd like to consider it déjà vu-2. As the U2360 tour merchandise bags advertised, "All of the U2 catalogue is being completely remastered and re-issued." U2 is keen on always releasing something annually, as is the record company. The age of the remaster is well under way, and it's obviously not just U2 taking advantage of this. Just about every major artist with the longevity of U2 goes through this, so it's no surprise. Just the other day I was looking up Van Morrison's catalog and found that he's done a slew of remasters as well. The Guardian ran a story back in September about how "back catalogues spin a new generation of profits for record labels." With the record industry losing their ability to have an artist survive for a few years, let alone decades, their lifeline in today's market is in mining the archives of bands like U2. There is even a course on Commercial Music at University of Westminster where students can focus on "publishing, international markets, back catalogue and other exploitation issues" in regard to creating a business model within the music industry. What this means to me is that we will most certainly see more remasters than completely original material coming from U2 in the next decade, and no matter how productive the songwriting sessions are in the south of France, I am not holding my breath that we'll have a new original release from them before we see the next incarnation of remastered material. After all, we're coming close to the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby.
On the Live Nation / Ticketmaster merger front, Pollstar reported that the Competition Commission in the UK is waiting to make its decision on allowing the merger until January 19, 2010. The article states, "The CC's announcement seems to hint at the difficulties of giving a UK ruling on whether two US-based companies could work as one in the UK, particularly as the American monopoly authority has yet to give its ruling on the deal." The American monopoly authority mentioned is the US Department of Justice, who is currently reviewing anti-trust issues with the merger. The Associated Press reported that both companies are moving forward, calling a shareholders meeting to formally approve the deal on January 8, 2010. And on the scalping front, it seems that Craigslist could be hurting the ticket reselling market. According to Matt Rosoff on cnet.com, "Inevitably, I find a few people who bought a ticket then had an irresolvable conflict. These are normal people -- not scalpers, just fans like you and me -- and they almost always settle for what they paid, or even less." His blog post goes into greater detail about his experiences. While I've had mixed experiences with Craigslist and buying items, he does bring up some valid points about regular fans who are just looking to help other fans out of a jam.
Have a great week! © @U2/Lawrence, 2009
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