By Lukas I. Alpert
The Associated Press

This cigarette-lighter-sized device, that can hang off a key chain, fits into an eMusicLive USB kiosk at participating concert venues, allowing audience members to buy music they just heard. The Associated Press/CHAD RACHMAN

There was the 78, the 45 and then the MP3 - all heralded as great innovations in music recording technology. Fast forward a bit and now, minutes after your favorite band sounds its last note, you can load a live recording onto a cigarette-lighter-sized hard drive hanging off your key chain.

Take it home, toss the digital files onto your computer and then e-mail it to all your friends with the message "Dude! These guys are awesome!"

Oh, how far we've come.

On May 21, the first of the interfaces - digital kiosks really - will be installed at Maxwell's, a small indie-rock club in Hoboken, N.J. At $10 a pop for the recording, and $20 for the reusable, key chain pen drive, let the downloading begin.

"This is a tool that allows fans to take home and share some of the best independent music from small live venues around the country," said Daniel Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates, a private equity firm which owns eMusic Live, which created the machines.

For Scott Ambrose Reilly, president of eMusic Live, the idea is to let fans have a legal copy of the show, which gives smaller artists and their labels creative control over the quality of the recording and a commercial stake in its distribution.

It is not a one-time recording, and the fans can share the files with their friends, providing free word-of-mouth publicity for smaller bands.

For eMusic Live, the devices are just the next step for a service that they, and competitors Clear Channel, already provide: burning CDs of live performances right after a show ends.

"What we were seeing is that a large number of people were taking their CDs home and ripping them to MP3s, so we thought it would benefit music fans to eliminate that middle step," Reilly said.

The technology is quite simple: The listener goes up to the touch-screen kiosk after the show and buys the pen drive with a credit card from a dispenser alongside the screen. Once that's done, the pen drive is inserted into a slot and the recording - in the form of MP3 files - are loaded onto the device's 128 MB hard drive.

A receipt for the transaction is then sent to your e-mail address.

"I can remember when I started the debate was whether the 45 or 33 would be more successful," said Richard Gottehrer, author of hits like "My Boyfriend's Back," and "I Want Candy," and chairman of The Orchard, an Internet-based marketing venture for smaller acts also owned by Dimensional Associates.

"Now the Napsters of the world are yesterday's news and this is the newer, legal, next step," he said.

"Admittedly this won't be for everyone," Reilly said. "But since the direction of music is increasingly going digital, I don't see why this wouldn't find its niche."

As for fighting music piracy, Reilly said the technology would help, but wasn't its main focus.

"This is more about spreading the music around and less a fight about piracy and legislative issues," he said.

At a demo for the device at a sound studio on Tuesday, a New York-based band, Elysian Fields, performed three songs, which were quickly loaded onto the pen drives afterward.

Once at home, the device was inserted into the USB port of a laptop and voila! singer Jennifer Charles' smoky, lilting lyrics and Oren Bloedow's reverbed-out, brooding guitar lines filled the living room.

On the Net

•  eMusic Live

•  eMusic

•  The Orchard