Free Republic

Concert CDs sold on the spot by a radio giant New York Times News Service Clear Channel Communications, the radio broadcasting and concert promotion giant, plans to introduce on Monday a venture that will sell live recordings on compact disc within five minutes of a show's conclusion. The venture, Instant Live, will enable a band's still-sweating fans to leave with a musical souvenir instead of, say, a pricey T-shirt or a glossy program. Although initially modest, involving only small-audience clubs and theaters in the Boston area, the venture could eventually extend beyond radio and concerts into music distribution. And that...

Pearl Jam doesn't play the corporate game. Or so the hugely successful Seattle-based rock music group would have you believe. The band's origins are in that city's anti-corporate, grunge rock movement. Fronted by singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder, the band's street credibility was reinforced by a lengthy, late 1990s feud with Ticketmaster, which the band boycotted in an effort to keep ticket prices down for its fans. But last week, a Delray Beach, Fla., music entrepreneur, Shep Alster, challenged Pearl Jam's populist image in Palm Beach Circuit Court. He is suing the band and its business consultant, Peter McQuaid, contending that they...