HOB.com: Live is good
by Jeff Mellen
No matter how many albums from Jive Records you have, no matter how
many Billboard Hot 100 singles you have on your MP3 list, or no matter
how much Total Request Live you watch, you have to agree that
nothing beats the power and performance of live music. What
else could draw hundreds of thousands of Gen-Xers to an air force
base in 100-degree heat, make legends out of the Grateful Dead, or
keep lounge singers' careers alive in Las Vegas?
HOB.com, the online property of the House of Blues, capitalizes on
this with a wide variety of live musical content. The site was
launched in 1995, but grew in earnest in 1996, when it entered a partnership
with Progressive Networks (now RealNetworks) to broadcast concerts
recorded at the House of Blues' eight venues in RealAudio format.
At that point, it also teamed up with KCRW, a Los Angeles-based public
radio station renowned for its innovative studio shows and live performances.
From that core of resources, HOB has grown into not just a large repository
of diverse musical performances, but a ticketing distributor, a site
for music news and artist interviews, a network of Internet radio
stations, a gospel music hub, and more.
What makes HOB unique is that it almost completely bypasses the traditional
commodity of the digital music marketplace-- the single track.
The concerts, CD previews, audio clips, and other musical offerings
are all streaming in either RealMedia or Windows Media Player formats;
you can also download 30-second snippets for free or music videos
for $3 a piece. But after expansion, its gold is still in its
live, free streaming concerts. Most of the 750 performances
are from artists are in the popular middle or to-be-discovered category,
but quality is consistent. For example, the archive contains
a great concert from Outkast, recorded two weeks the Atlanta hip-hop
duo dropped Stankonia on the musical world and elevated themselves
to TRL status. David Gray appears live from Charlottesville,
Virginia, before his single "Babylon" took off. Other
headliners include Everclear, Royal Crown Revue, jazz singer Diane
Schur, and Ani DiFranco. HOB Digital also is in the process
of spinning off a country-centric site, a gospel-centric site, and
in the near future, a DVD and HDTV property, beaming and recording
live concerts for mass distribution.
HOB.com's business and content model may prove to be longer lasting
than the pay-for-what-you-can-get-with-Napster sites. The content
is recorded at House of Blues properties, ampitheaters and clubs throughout
the nation. Virtually all content is streaming, and exceeds
MP3 quality for broadband users. Its partnerships with public
radio stations mean that it can broadcast performances and recordings
that were meant to be free in the first place. The quality and
replay value generated by true artists in a live setting far exceeds
that of a studio track; just ask Dave Matthews or Trey Anastasio.
Finally, HOB maintains the blend of widely recognized and to-be-discovered
artists that has made Napster a boon to independent musicians.
Personally, with the singles war between the RIAA and Napster in full
force, I think the future of digital music will be in these widely
accessible, live performances. Concertgoers will continue to
attend for the experience, whereas computer users can still listen
for their quality. If this turns out to be true, then HOB.com
will be one of the leaders in Internet music. Today, it's merely
a great site with great music.