In the year's most significant tour sponsorship announcement, it was made official on Tuesday that Alanis Morissette's North American summer tour with Tori Amos is being co-sponsored by MP3.com. (Best Buy, the retail chain, is the other co-sponsor.) The partnership, first reported at Rolling Stone Online two weeks ago, comes at a time when the music industry continues to grapple with the growing role of the MP3 format, a favorite among online music pirates.
As part of the MP3.com package, which reportedly earned Morissette a small equity stake in the online company, the singer will soon post a live song of hers on the site, with more offerings likely to come. However, in a compromise with Morissette's record company, Maverick, the songs will be "streamed," so fans will be able to listen only at their computers, instead of downloaded, to discourage piracy. For its part, Maverick and its joint-venture parent Time Warner, agreed to wave the so-called thirty-second rule, which forbids any Time Warner artist from posting more than thirty seconds of a song online.
The Morissette/Amos "5 1/2 Weeks Tour" begins Aug. 18 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is scheduled for twenty-six shows. At each stop, an unsigned act that has been posting their own music files at MP3.com, will be selected by Morissette to open each show.
It was also announced that Atlas/Third Rail management, home to Morissette as well as the Goo Goo Dolls, Luscious Jackson, Green Day and Seal, had formed an on-going relationship with MP3.com to help market its artists. Exclusive MP3.com chats and ticket giveaways are in the works. Michael Robertson, founder and CEO of MP3.com, says the announcement indicates "the music industry is warming to the Net and to companies like MP3.com." That may be true when it comes to marketing acts, which MP3.com, with all its heavy daily traffic, can do effectively. But by most accounts, labels are still leery about MP3'srole in online piracy.
ERIC BOEHLERT
(April 27, 1999)
