Underworld lead, others follow...

[BeautifulBurnout]

Radiohead to webcast gig on NYE. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7161237.stm)

...Although this is a pre-recorded set, so I guess they aren't taking any huge risks. I wonder the extent to which other major bands would even have considered doing this if UW hadn't blazed the trail with Cocoon and the like?

[TomTom]

^^ Underworld was imo not the 1st band doing a successful webcast..maybe they did it in bigger dimensions but they did not invent webcasting or made it popular - as much as I like to give credits to the boys. ;) I like though what Radiohead did with the web release of their latest album...people were allowed to pay as much (or little if you are a cheap skate lol) as they wanted for the CD download. That's a pretty interesting concept but I never heard if it was (besides the media effect) also a financial success.

[Dirty0900]

Becoz UW aren't as populist as radiohead etc, they wont get the credit for doing this.

Surely UW releasing the RiverRun off their own back was before Radiohead did In Rainbows [minus the price setting].

[joethelion]

well...
David Bowie was the first(?) (major - at least) artist to ever release something on the internet. It was the single for "Telling Lies", back in 1996. I don't remember if it was for free or if you had to pay. I do know that the single was later pressed onto (limited) cd's... but it was intentionally done so that it was harder to buy the physical release than just to download it.

He also released 'hours...' online as copy-protected mp3's before the album was physically released

...there also was at least two different in-the-studio webcasts as well. I definitely remember one was for the recording of the track "What's Really Happening" and the other was mixing the audio from a live performance (and you "were able to give input") for eventual release - I forget if this was for the "liveandwell.com" or the "Bowie at the Beeb" live albums

buuuut this was all between 96->99-ish - so needless to say, a lot of the streaming audio/video was buggy to say the least... and nothing quite worked out that well

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Well, Peter Gabriel was the first artist to have what is known as a website. To add, I really don't think he wants that credit and is more than happy to others have discovered it's power.

[BeautifulBurnout]

All of the above notwithstanding, I don't know of any other big bands that webcast their actual concerts - sound and visuals - live, prior to Cocoon. But I may well be wrong and will stand corrected if I am.

[holden]

Though they may not be the first band to utilize the internet for releasing music or broadcasting shows, Underworld must surely be one of the most prolific bands for web-based broadcast/downloads. Dogboyheadset/UWLive have provided rare, interesting new tracks since at least 2000 (EE days), and there have been how many radio shows by the lads since then? An incomplete count of UW net broadcasts:

XM Beaucoup fish preview 1998
BlueMountain Jam 1999
Peel Session 12-10-2003
Lemonworld 12-16-2004
Lemonworld 2-10-2005
Tokyo live gig 11-25-2005
Lemonworld 12-15-2005
Lemonworld 5-13-2006
Cocoon Club Gig 10-12-2006
Roundhouse London 10-18-2007
Oblivion Ball special 11-13-2007
Oblivion Ball live 11-25-2007
UW vs the Misterons 12-12-2007

Not to mention some DJing radio shows - filling in for Peel (2004); R&K in Paris 2002; etc.
I'm surely forgetting some others!
Point is, they've been very active and consistent and fearless with the live gigs. i'm not aware of another band that can attest to this!

[//\/\/]

weren't fsol doing gigs from their studio via isdn way back when?

[industri_studios]

Yeah, FSOL were early on that front (hence the name of the ISDN album).

They Might Be Giants were one of the first bands to really harness the power of selling music online (and were the top earning band for digital releases the first year they started tracking such things).

[joethelion]

yea - FSOL 'toured' back in the day from their studios (via ISDN hookup)

like, a big set up was transfered to different places that was connected back to their studios (I'm not totally sure to what extent they toured... it was before I actually got into them.)

and Bowie did a live (audio / video) internet broadcast of one of his shows during the promotional tour for 'hours...' - I think it was a gig in Austria... but I forget (I was never a fan of that album anyways)

[Scott Warner]

All things Underworld and Dirty were certainly not the first with these things but we were definitely part of first wave of noteable artists and sites offering alternative broadcasts and distribution. The MP3 free download of "Kittens" before 'Beaucoup Fish' was released was one of the first big free downloads of music and was written up in Time Magazine along with Prince's efforts in the field at the time. Dirtyradio has been streaming since the late 90's. Etc. etc.

[lloyd]

Underworld provided some music that was used by NVA during Stormy Waters, a live spectacle in Liverpool in 1995. This was the first time in the EU that something like this was broadcasted over the internet (Mbone).
http://www.nva.org.uk/stormy/index.html

[BeautifulBurnout]

.... and what a lush webcast it was too, it seems. I didn't catch it, but there is a youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukythkK4EPQ) here.

Nice work. :)

Although this is more a Lemonworld, not a Cocoon or Makuhari, as such. Which is my point, I think :p

[cacophony]

^ youtube's basically a second compression. a cleaner version is on current TV. i think i heard they're pulling it down after the 30th or something, so watch while it's still up.

here. (http://current.com/items/88803042_radiohead_s_scotch_mist)

[botkiller]

yea - FSOL 'toured' back in the day from their studios (via ISDN hookup)

like, a big set up was transfered to different places that was connected back to their studios (I'm not totally sure to what extent they toured... it was before I actually got into them.)

and Bowie did a live (audio / video) internet broadcast of one of his shows during the promotional tour for 'hours...' - I think it was a gig in Austria... but I forget (I was never a fan of that album anyways)

Yeah, I was going to mention ISDN as well. They basically set up ISDN connections to places they were playing and had live video/audio feeds into the venue - an idea that I think is awesome, and would love to see done again.

[joethelion]

I wonder why that never really took off?

I mean - it surely would be much much much easier to do ISDN type shows nowadays than back then, right?