Added 03/07/2009 by briggs

Data Transport Key To Pirate Bay’s Business Model

Global Gaming Factory X (GGF), which purchased The Pirate Bay for $7.7 million, says it plans to turn the site into a legitimate, profitable source of downloadable media through data transport. The company, wrote BusinessWeek’s Mark Scott, wants to bundle the Internet traffic of Pirate Bay’s users, re-sell it to ISPs and split the revenues with the users – all while paying an undetermined amount to content owners.

GGF is not short on ambition. The company says it expects to gross $56 million per month -- $672 million per year – in ad revenue from The Pirate Bay. “The technology will use the community of file-sharers to cut costs of data traffic for ISPs by more than a half,” said the company’s CEO. The plan assumes traffic will not subside. As other illegal-to-legit P2P services can attest, that’s wishful thinking. It also assumes licensing deals can be worked out with content owners in way that will not decrease traffic. Unlimited, free downloads of any item – the building blocks of The Pirates Bay’s success – imply the existence of DRM or, at the very least, so many hoops through which the user must jump that the product is irreparably harmed.

Those are lofty revenue goals for a company that grossed 4.9 million Swedish Kroner (SEK) ($630,000) and had net loss of 4.2 million SEK (-$539,000) on assets of 51.6 million SEK ($6.6 million) in 2008.

Such a plan would mean GGF would need to juggle the demands of content owners, promises to prospective ISP partners and the demands of advertisers. Media companies are justified to be skeptical of the plan and are not likely to jump headfirst into such a plan without a serious commitment from GFF. That will require huge advances, which could prove difficult for a company with so few assets, as well as commitments from ISPs and a lack of thorny legal issues.

According to Billboard

Added 02/07/2009 by briggs

Alice In Chains Tour Dates Announced

Alice In Chains have unveiled details of a headlining tour of the US and Canada, kicking off September 24 in Washington D.C..

The band are currently gearing up for the release of their brand new album ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ which will be released on September 29. The record is the first from Alice In Chains in 10 years.

A seven-minute track from the album ‘A Looking In View’ is currently streaming at aliceinchains.com.

The band are set to perform on July 18 at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI and will perform on August 22 with Tool and Linkin Park at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA.

According to NME.com

Added 01/07/2009 by briggs

U2 Start World Tour In Barcelona

Irish rock group U2 kicked off their first tour in three years yesterday (June 30), playing to 90,000 fans in Barcelona on one of the biggest concert stages ever built.

Over the next four months U2 will perform to an estimated three million fans in 31 cities across Europe and North America, with more dates expected to be announced next year.

The " U2 360 Tour" lives up to its name with a round stage, which fans will surround inside FC Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium.

Around 500 ticket holders slept outside the venue on Monday night hoping to grab a spot right by the stage when the doors open, local media reported.

That will be easier this time around, organizers say, with the new stage concept giving more fans a clearer view as well as allowing for more people, meaning lower ticket prices during the recession.

The U2 360 Tour is reported to be the group's most expensive to date, costing an estimated $100 million, but industry experts suggest it could be money well spent. The 2005-6 Vertigo tour earned the band $389 million.

Live performance is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for major acts like U2 as sales of physical CDs declines sharply and online piracy remains rampant.

The stage, which takes 120 trucks to transport, is another grand statement from the four rockers who have won more Grammy awards than any other band.

On the Zoo TV tour, huge video screens overloaded fans with flashing images of pop culture. On the PopMart tour lead singer Bono appeared from inside a 12 meter glitterball shaped like a lemon.

The abiding visual memory on this tour is sure to be the "Claw," a four-legged "monster" that towers 50 meters over the band's heads and on which the sound system is mounted.

Bono, plus guitarists the Edge and Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr on drums will be showcasing their 12th studio album, "No Line on the Horizon."

Reviews of the record, which mixes trademark atmospheric guitars with more eclectic sounds from Morocco where it was partly recorded, were generally good, and it went straight to No. 1 in 30 countries including the United States and Britain.

Early sales in the United States, however, were sharply down on those for U2's previous album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," released in 2004.

According to Billboard