Over the course of the next two weekends, the 35th Annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will bring 10 days of culture and music to over 500,000 visitors.
But this year, music fans will get the chance to experience the festival without ever leaving their homes.
Thanks to Munck Mix Inc., Jazz Fest attendees will be given the opportunity to purchase whole sets of live music within days of an artist’s performance through the Web site
jazzfestlive.com.
With whole sets downloaded on MP3 costing $11.95 and CDs costing $14.50, listeners can get the concert experience at the cost of a regular CD.
According to Louis Edwards, the associate producer of promotions for the festival, the idea of making set downloads available through the Internet is a first for Jazz Fest.
“It is the first time anything has been offered like this at all,” Edwards said. “It is an interesting thing going on with the culture right now.”
Munck Mix Inc. was founded by entrepreneurs Peer Munck and Rik Reppe. The two started out by getting a license to the rights to The Dead’s summer tour and burning CDs on demand for fans.
“We thought it was a really stupid, but a really fun idea,” Reppe said. “But the damn thing worked.”
Sales for The Dead’s summer tour recordings reached just under 100,000 — far exceeding Reppe’s expectations of only a few thousand.
Reppe said he sees the recordings as an opportunity for those who cannot make it to every performance at Jazz Fest.
“There are time slots with two bands and they can buy the CD of the ones they missed,” Reppe said. “I look at the schedule for this weekend and I say ‘How the hell do you choose?’ It can convenience as many people as possible.”
Bill Grimes, director of Graduate Studies for the School of Music, said he thinks making the recordings available could hurt ticket sales.
“It is like if they haven’t sold out tickets to the football game, you black out the game on television in the local area,” Grimes said.
Grimes said musicians should also be wary of the sound quality. Grimes himself is a virtuoso jazz performer and serves as director of the LSU Jazz Ensemble.
“I like to monitor how my music goes out there,” Grimes said. “I like to have editorial control.”
According to Reppe, artists have the ability to tell him after the show they no longer want their recordings published.
“It is nerve-wracking but the band has the final stand point if the artist wants to veto the release,” Reppe said. “We can record the set and be happy technically, but the artist might be unhappy with it.”
Reppe said the recordings are more sophisticated than the recordings circulated in underground taping rings.
“We still try to maintain some of the rough edges,” Reppe said. “We want it to sound a bit dirty, raw.”
Reppe said Munck Mix is trying to be ready for any unforeseen difficulties and any volume of customers.
“If no one buys it, I will still have the coolest music for my car,” Reppe said.