RIFFAGE GETS INTO CLUB GAME
The Palo Alto, CA-based Riffage.com bought the historic venue for an undisclosed price.
The Great American Music Hall has hosted performances by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dave Matthews and Carlos Santana, among others.
The dot-com upstart will bring Internet broadcasting of future performances to the hall and wire the venue with high-tech digital production and networking capabilities, officials said.
Riffage.com CEO Ken Wirt said the Webcasting feature would broaden the reach of the Great American Music Hall "so fans worldwide can also enjoy and discover our featured entertainers through the Internet."
Artists who now play at the hall will have the option of Webcasting their performance to an audience that can't make the show, but do have computer access. Riffage.com will showcase artists promoted through its own Web site as well as established performers booked through traditional methods.
Company officials said any comparisons to what House of Blues and its online department have been already doing are unfounded. "That's totally different," Wirt said. "They call their online concert broadcasts ‘cybercasting,' ours are ‘Webcasting.' It's like night and day."
