I knew concerts were a big source of revenue for musicians, but I had no idea they were this big:

That's $3.3 million or more for a summer of work, good pay even for Jay-Z, who has sold 30 million records. Musicians of every stripe will make a pile of money touring this summer. The Dixie Chicks, the country crooners who came under fire for opposing the war in Iraq, sold more than $45 million in tickets for 57 shows in less than a week.

With labels like EMI trying to get rights to concert revenues, I wonder how the power structure in the industry will shake out. The concert promotion world has gotten a lot more sophisticated as Clear Channel Communications has strong-armed its way to the front of the pack in recent years, and I'll bet that they won't want competition for those dollars.

Record labels are (were?) attractive to artists because of their monopoly on the distribution infrastructure. If you're making money by selling records, it's smart to associate yourself with a company that knows how to get your records into stores. If you make your money on the road and promote yourself via radio and free P2P, then maybe you'll go with representation that has a knack for getting you dates in the best venues (cuz they own 'em all). Perhaps we'll start seeing artists sign directly to companies like Clear Channel? Talk about out of the frying pan.
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