WebProNews

A Nashville holding company has launched Crowfly, which will offer downloads of concerts.

The first concert to be made available via Crowfly Digital Entertainment will be Mark Knopfler's July 13 date at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. The download will go on sale tomorrow from the musician's web site for $14.99.

Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler commented, "I have never objected to fans recording performances for themselves. However, with this new technology we are in a position to give our audiences something of the highest quality they can keep as a lasting souvenir of the night."

Downloads from Crowfly will be encoded with Windows DRM technology. However, the company says it can adapt to use any DRM technology or music file format. That poses the possibility of Crowfly providing downloads in Apple's AAC format, which would make it compatible with the iPod.

And should the video iPod come to pass, this could be another source of video content, provided of course the company could negotiate a deal with Apple to permit this.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.