John Mayer at iTMS

today announced that four concerts from his current tour will be available for download from the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) this month. Mayer said he "wanted to document these shows for his fans while the music and the memories are still fresh. And wouldn't it be cool, he reasoned, if he could team up with Apple's groundbreaking iTMS in bringing these in-concert documents to the people? Mayer is delighted that his brainstorm is now a virtual reality." On each "New Music Tuesday" between Aug. 10 and Aug. 31, iTunes will make a 10-song edited show available for downloading in a month-long exclusive window.

The four sets, whose songs are being chosen by Mayer himself, will be sold as albums only. The series bears the collective title 'As Is.' Mayer says he decided to call the live recordings 'As Is' because "What you hear is what you get. The wrong notes are as wrong as the right ones are right. In the end, the way the songs make you feel is the only thing that matters."



"We're thrilled to be working with John to give iTunes users the opportunity to purchase and download some of his recent concerts," said Eddy Cue, Vice President of Applications at Apple. "This exclusive offering is a great example of the power of digital music and its ability to quickly bring unique and compelling content to hungry music fans worldwide."



Mayer said that he has been a big fan of the iTunes Music Store since its launch in early 2003. "iTunes is the only outlet for an artist to keep music in a purely musical realm," the artist says. "No marketing plans, no journalistic scrutiny -- just a mainline from the stage and studio directly to the fans."



Following Apple's window of exclusivity, the 'As Is' series will also be available on other digital song providers.

by MacNN Staff