The revolution in the evolution

There's been some interesting pieces written concerning the new era of the recording industry and how consumers are purchasing and getting music from their favorite artists ... or their not-so-favorite artists.

I saw that 2010 will be the official tipping point in the music industry -- where digital downloads will surpass the sales of music from traditional activity. You know ... like heading down to your favorite record store and picking up a CD from your favorite artists.

So, what's the problem? So artists aren't selling as many records as they used to and are making their millions from the downloading public.

Well, it's not quite that simple. First of all, if record companies can't sell records they wont' be around ... record labels are after all in the business of selling records it would seem. And, if CDs don't sell like they used to sell, it would seem that the big checks written by record labels signing artists to record deals won't be as big as they used to be.

Secondly, it was a little easier back in the day to safeguard against people stealing music when buying tunes involved heading down to the record store. Sure, there were those who might be inclined to put a CD in a coat pocket and shoplift the thing out of there.

But it's much easier to steal music these days when it involves pulling it out of cyberspace. According to an industry report, downloads of singles increased 10 percent in 2009 to 1.5 billion units.

Number one downloaded artist of 2009? Anyone?

Lady Gaga. Seriously. I would staked my house and most worldly possessions on the Jonas Brothers or Taylor Swift for that honor.

Moving on.

The recording industry is attributing an overall slump in sales to pirates. People are just flat stealing music from artists. In broad daylight in some instances.

So, the recording industry isn't necessarily tasking itself with bolstering record sales and finding new ways to market CDs. It is instead tasking itself with stopping piracy and finding ways to cater to those who want to consume and purchase music legitimately.

Some countries have even adopted legislation -- that's right, the government is involved -- where people are warned first if they are attempting to download music illegally, and if the process continues, the would-be pirates have their Internet service and connection suspended.

Sounds a little extreme and it appears to be a system that can be easy defeated.

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster and LiveNation continue to steam toward a merger that would in essence monopolize the concert industry. Ticketmaster would control 90 percent or perhaps even more of the tickets to shows and events and LiveNation would control the venues and the artists.

In fact, there are many artists who are signing exclusive promotion deals with LiveNation to perform a certain number of shows in LiveNation venues. LiveNation is big player in routing the tours.

The latest on that front sees LiveNation trying to sell of some of its venues to a rival company, while Ticketmaster is stating it may divest of its sister company, TicketsNow.com.

What does all of this mean? Well it continues to add evidence to the theory that the dominant revenue stream for artists will be touring -- kind of like it was in the old days.

For this reason, LiveNation and Ticketmaster merging might be a bad thing for the concert going public. If LiveNation is controlling venues and dictating tours, and Ticketmaster controls the ticketing, the concert going public may pay the pipers.

Have you priced top concert tickets these days? The top grossing concert in the week ending Dec. 31, 2009 was Mariah Carey's show in Madison Square Garden where top tickets went for $321 a shot.

Here's the hook folks ... if those reading this don't glean anything else from this drivel other than the following statement, well, that's fine.

It just can't be denied that our event ... the Real. Texas. Festival. is a tremendous value by today's standards. Pre-sale tickets will be launched the middle or end of February. Those who buy early will only pay $10 to see Kevin Fowler or Cross Canadian Ragweed -- or $12 to see both on a two day pass.

They'll also get a chance to stop in and see the Mesquite Championship Rodeo.

And, we won't even charge you to park.