If you've been paying attention, then you're probably aware that Clear Channel own your favorite (or least favorite) radio station, your local concert venues, the promoter who organizes shows for them, the billboards that advertise the show, and the company you bought the tickets from. And now they own your favorite dead rock star. SFX Entertainment, a promoter owned by Clear Channel, has bought an 85% share of Elvis Presley's estate and name from Lisa Marie Presley. That includes Graceland. Wow, do they ever suck. (Salon agrees.)
posted by logovisual on Dec 16, 2004 - 37 comments

Based on a software analysis of 250,000 CDs for mathematical patterns, and further analysis of the last 5 years of Billboards' Top 30, Polyphonic HMI thinks they know what it takes to rock your world (i.e., cause a song to shoot up the charts). Of course, major labels are interested (NYT link, scroll halfway down). Will this cause mainstream radio to be overrun with inane, soul-crushingly similar music, and crowd out anything different or interesting? Because I wouldn't like that!
posted by luser on Mar 12, 2003 - 39 comments

What if they put on a concert and nobody came? Its not sales of recorded music that are in the shitter. Now it turns out that live concert ticket sales are in freefall as well (Lets see Hillary try and blame that on MP3s!) The Clearchannel effect has been discussed here several times, but the concert promotion industry's trade paper, Pollstar, reports that sales are down 10% from last year and assigns the blame squarely on ever higher ticket prices: The average ticket cost across McCartney's recent 29 city US tour was $129.50 !!! CSNY had a tour average of $80. I've always preferred small venue acts, but even those have gotten pricey. I just saw Jorma in a 50 person coffeehouse and the tix were $35. (Coffee not included) So I ask the sizable MeFi musical appreciation crowd: Are you seeing less live music because of the cost?
posted by BentPenguin on Jul 16, 2002 - 55 comments

Clear Channel bans Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire", The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," John Lennon's "Imagine," and "all Rage Against The Machine songs" (which I am sure they have wanted to do for awhile), but not The Cure's "Killing An Arab" or anything by Twisted Sister. Sounds a bit fishy to me. Clear Channel owns over 1,170 radio stations. [from FuckedCompany.com]
posted by tranquileye on Sep 17, 2001 - 68 comments