Live music laughs in the face of recording industry uproar…

Knitting Factory is now doing ‘ticketing by text’. Billed through shoptext (not the mobile carrier). Works on all cell phones (not just most or some cell phones). What was I just saying…

Ticketmaster is investing in a big mobile strategy by being able to call and get tickets from your phone. Average transaction on Ticketmaster is $168. The online experience is great, but to be even faster and more efficient they’re going mobile.

Kelli feels the potential for mobile is at concerts – it’s going in the right direction, but at this point you’re not fully taking advantage of having all those fans, all those people there in one place, trusty phone by their side…

Fans getting to influence the setlist…is it novelty? Maybe – but sites like Eventful are examples where fans having something to say and want to talk to their favorite bands…they just have never been able to before. The rock star ‘mystery’ has disintegrated, but there’s now the potential for a relationship…that extends beyond leaving “I LUV UUUUUUU” messages on band’s MySpace page.

David was pretty tightlipped about Ticketmaster’s relationship with Live Nation…Scott followed up with more on their philosophy which was nice…but it would appear that Ticketmaster is moving away from Live Nation because (if I heard David’s mumbling correctly) they’ll at some point in the future be “competing”. More here.

I liked Aaron from Control Room’s pitch about how how they’re not replacing the live experience, but instead facilitating the urge to be there for the live experience the next time.

Widgets…iLike went from 4,000 users to 15 million users over the course of Ticketmaster being an investor. They’re pretty ‘hands off’ and let those guys do their thing…Ticketmaster is also launching (this week or next week?) an affiliate widget – enabling “mini promoters”…

Jared of The Knitting Factory brought up the point that iLike doesn’t link to their website when someone wants to find out more about an artist – it (duh) goes to Ticketmaster. That may not be a problem for every venue, but he brings up an important point for venues that would prefer to be building their own brand equity.

I don’t think their unique there…yes, you can shrug and say “deal with it” because it enables these small venues to get bigger distribution, but for places like The Knitting Factory or Hotel Cafe, wouldn’t you be able to spotlight the venue as well? It is part of the experience…