This is what your future post-concert experience will look like, writes Jim Carroll. You are leaving the venue, raving about the show you have just seen. The act, your favourite band of all time, have just played a stormer, easily the best gig of their comeback career.

They did a couple of one-off cover versions and a few old songs which you had never heard them play live before. The lead singer even cracked a great joke.

You are delirious. You want to see that show again so bad that you're thinking about going to see them again the following night. But this is the future, remember, so you just walk up to the CD booth, stand in the queue, pay €10 and walk away with a freshly-minted CD of that night's show.

It's a fantastic concept, isn't it? The live show you just saw, pristinely recorded with every burp, bum note and witty aside to the crowd in place and available to you as soon as the band leave the stage. No downloading, no under-the-counter bootleg shenanigans, no waiting. It's a no-brainer, the legitimate instant gig CD is about to become ubiquitous.

The problems, though, begin with US patent number 6,614,729. Awarded to David and James Griner, it was the first such patent granted by the US Parent & Trademark Office for creating digital recordings of live performances.

What the Griners wanted to do was capture what happens at a live concert and, using fast-speed CD burners, churn out the CDs for fans to buy on their way home.

What our good friends at entertainment giants Clear Channel Communications saw, however, was a chance to get a slice of the $400-million-a-year concert merchandise business, and they purchased the patent for their Instant Live subsidiary from the Griners for an undisclosed sum.

Instant Live, however, were not the only players in the gig-CD market. Companies like eMusic Live and DiscLive were already rolling up, talking to acts, taping the shows and flogging CDs before Instant Live came along.

But, like an Ulster football player in Croke Park, Instant Live attempted to shoulder all the opposition from the pitch. With the patent in their pocket, they played the patent bully by claiming that they now held exclusive rights to record and sell concert CDs, despite the fact that live recordings have been in existence for decades. If that didn't work, they had another advantage: their big daddy owned 130 venues in the United States.

Suddenly, acts who wanted to work with companies other than Instant CD to record shows at Clear Channel venues hit a few snags. Pixies were planning to use DiscLive to record shows on their reunion tour until they heard that this would not wash when they played Clear Channel venues. "I'm not fond of doing business with my arm twisted behind my back," was Pixies manager Ken Goss's reaction when they were forced to change their plans.

The Instant Live development is another reason why Clear Channel's virtual monopolisation of the global entertainment market through venues, radio stations and music promotion companies is so contentious. Widely criticised by industry professionals and US politicians for their anti-competitive and anti-artist practices, Clear Channel just keep on trucking regardless.

That they are now also believed to be considering launching a record label comes as no surprise. While record companies have thrown a few meek copyright punches about Instant Live's gig CD, you don't need to be a business analyst to realise that Clear Channel's record label would probably specialise in flogging live recordings. They own the venue, they own the CD-recording set-up, they own the radio stations to play the CDs on, and sure, why shouldn't they also own the artist as well? Of course, Clear Channel don't just confine their business dealings to the United States. Seeing as how they already operate the Point in Dublin, who's to say they won't also buy an Irish concert promoter or two, a few radio stations (that new Dublin rock licence, for instance) and a couple of local newspapers while they're at it? The more, the merrier. And you still really think rock & roll is all about the music?