Live Online Concerts Courtesy of Microsoft

In Jack Womack’s future-past slipstream novel Elvissey, a couple from a future Earth society goes back into the past to an alternate Earth, 1950s era, before that Earth’s Elvis Presley became famous, and then takes him unwillingly back to the future to worship him. In Bradley Denton’s science fiction novel Buddy Holly Is Alive And Well And Living on Ganymede, TV broadcasts of an apparently alive Buddy Holly suddenly start airing, precipitating a journey (if I remember correctly; it’s been a while).

Well forget TV broadcasts. The revolution IS being televised, but online, through IPTV. In fact, IPTV is the revolution. Truth is, music will always be popular, with dead rockstars or living, and everyone wants a piece of the action, including Microsoft. Their latest venture is a partnership with Control Room, to webcast live concerts.

In fact, not only will they be airing several dozen live events in the next few years but they will have exclusives online. The shows will be free through MSN sites. No idea whether these will be viewable on cell phones and PDAs, although I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to watch IPTV or mobile TV that way myself. Maybe they should consider broadcasting through the Windows Live Messenger interface.