Luxury resort Atlantis, The Palm was the first resort to open on one of Dubai’s infamous artificial islands, The Palm Jumeirah. Of course, no grand opening would be complete without a party and, since it’s in Dubai, it just had to be the most expensive party in the world.

The luxurious beach party was set to have over 2,000 guests and featured an extravagant $6.58 million fireworks display. The highlight of the evening, though, was the 60 minute performance by Kylie Minogue. For her first ever performance in the Middle East, the pop queen banked over $4 million.

While the 1,539 room hotel opened on September 24th 2008, the world’s most expensive party was scheduled nearly two months later on November 20th. Reportedly, the extravagant beach party cost its hosts over $35 million.

Broadway theatre has its roots in the very end of the 18th century, when New York’s first theatre companies were formed. Nowadays, Broadway audiences can expect to see a mixture of well known television and movie stars and stage actors who only play bit parts outside of theatre. Considering the salaries commanded by film actors, let alone costumes and sets, it’s little wonder that Broadway productions can become quite expensive.

The most expensive Broadway production in history will be “Spider-Man: The Musical,” directed by Julie Taymor. Taymor is no stranger to Broadway, having directed “The Lion King,” based on the Disney film of the same name, in 1997. Feature films under her belt include Shakespearian gore fest Titus (1999) and, most recently, Across the Universe (2007).

Taymor isn’t the only big name attached to this production, though. Scoring the musical will be U2’s Bono and The Edge.

The most expensive Broadway musical in history is expected to cost around $40 million to produce. It’s expected to open next year and, according to the New York Post, will have to run “about 8,000 years” in order to break even.

If you’re looking for a guitar pick, there’s no shortage of different shapes, styles and materials available for you to choose from. Customized picks have been prevalent since the days when Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick would throw hundreds of them out into the audience. In fact, most famous guitarists have their own custom guitar pick. Even among the myriad of different styles, some plectrums are more unique than others. The world’s most expensive guitar picks are some of those.

Starpics, an Australian company known for plectrums made of precious metals, created a completely unique pair of guitar picks. Like their other picks, they’re guaranteed to last pretty much forever and to significantly reduce string breakage. So what makes these picks so special?

They’re made of meteors.

These two luxury picks were fashioned from pieces of Gibeon meteorite. Said to be around 4 billion years old, Gibeon meteorites were discovered in 1836 in Namibia, Africa, where their sale and export were banned by the local government. Despite that fact, over twenty-five tons of the meteorites have been recovered and it is the most commonly found meteorite on the market today. One of the most interesting things about the meteorites is the pattern of Widmanstatten lines created by their frigid passage through space. These patterns are preserved in the picks and can be seen in the picture above.

The most expensive guitar picks in the world are priced at $5,000 AUD ($4,674 USD).

A financially endowed bass player might look at any one of Jens Ritter’s bass guitars, which start at $6,000, and be content. After all, the German luthier’s expensive basses are made with some of the same techniques used to make Stradivarius violins. One customer, however, wasn’t satisfied with one of Ritter’s “normal” guitars and we’re lucky for it. After all, if it weren’t for this customer, we wouldn’t be able to tell you about the world’s most expensive bass guitar.

The Ritter Royal Flora Aurum, as it’s called, has a body carved from a rare, solid piece of maple while the nut is carved from 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory. The fingerboard is decorated with a floral inlay pattern made of 24-karat gold. There’s even a black diamond set in platinum decorating each leaf. Even the bridge, tuner buttons and knobs are cast in gold. The knobs on this luxurious bass hold an additional embellishment—they’re both topped with brilliant-cut diamonds (3.3 carats total).

The Flora Aurum is a work in progress and is on hold for one lucky buyer.

The most expensive bass guitar in the world is valued at $100,000.

(via Luxist)
Universal Music has unveiled the world’s most expensive compact disc at a Japanese department store. The disc, entitled “Woman: Sweet 10 Diamond,” features eighteen songs by female recording artists including Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige and Nelly Furtado.
The disc’s real draw, though, is its case. Designed in Tokyo by Japanese jeweler Nagahori, the [...]

Looking for a top of the line audio system to put in your spacious new SUV? Why not try the world’s most expensive car audio system? Up and coming luxury audio system creators Rogue Acoustics made a splash when they unveiled their premiere car audio system, the RA:1K.
While the RA:1K is highly customizable, the majority [...]

Hiring a band is a great way to ensure that yours is a memorable party, but only if the band suits the attendees. How, then, do you impress a party that includes the social elite? You could try hiring one of the performers (or groups thereof) who have put on the most expensive private musical [...]

Sometimes it seems like there’s no limit to the amount of money audiophiles will pay to have the ultimate audio experience. For those of you with bottomless pockets and seasoned ears, here are the most expensive speakers in the world.

6. Wilson Audio’s Alexandria X-2
$135,000
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As one of the world’s largest consumer electronics trade shows, the IFA show in Berlin has certainly been host to some startlingly expensive electronic marvels. IFA 2007, which opened its doors on the last day of August, was no disappointment. Among the 1,212 exhibitors present at this year’s show was the aptly-named Audio magazine, there [...]

by Hunter Davis
Becoming popular in the late 1800’s, drum kits were revolutionized by the invention of the bass drum pedal that allowed a drummer to play on several percussion instruments at once like the snare, bass, and cymbals. Drum kits were popularized in the roaring twenties when their deep sounds and bright tones became a [...]

by Hunter Davis
Flutes fall into the category of woodwinds and unlike other similar instruments produce their sound without using a reed. Flutes produce sound using the flow of air against an edge. Generally called a flautist or flutist, the flute is known for its pleasant and sweet sounding tones that easily blend with various other [...]

Have you ever tried to imagine what the world’s most expensive piano might be? Imagine no further. The most expensive piano in the world belonged to the Beatle’s John Lennon and was auctioned off to British pop-singer George Michael in 2000. When the topic of expensive pianos comes to mind you might think somewhere along [...]

The violin is probably the most popular bowed and stringed musical instrument. The instrument comes from Italy during the 16th century and the oldest surviving violin dates to 1564.
One expensive violin, the Lady Tennant Stradivarius, was sold by Christie’s New York in April 2005 for $2.03 million US dollars. There have been private sales of [...]

Portable digital audio players, more commonly referred to as MP3 players, have taken the world by storm since Apple released their original 1.8” 5 GB iPod in 2001. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, though. The first of the modern successors to portable tape and CD players was produced in 1997 by SaeHan Information [...]

by Heather Strobel
“Blackie”, Eric Clapton’s favorite mid-career modified Strat has been surpassed in value and is no longer the most expensive guitar ever, despite that it was bought for $950,000 USD in 2004 by a guitar archaeologist.

The latest most expensive electric guitar in the world dethroned its predecessor at an auction in Doha, [...]

The turntable started out as a device used to play music by rotating a phonograph record on a a circular horizontal platform, but it has evolved into a music instrument itself and some models now are just as much as the costliest instrument. The record player was the most popular device for playing sound from [...]

iPods are an expensive and ever more popular electronic device. As the iPod has spread, so have the attachments and systems designed to interact with the iPod.
But here is probably the most expensive iPod accessory, and definitely the most expensive speakers being marketed for iPods. The most expensive iPod speakers are Hammacher Schlemmer Studio-Quality [...]

When MTV first went on air in 1981, music videos became an important part of promoting an artist. Nowadays, hardcore fans will even buy DVDs featuring all of their favorite artists’ videos. The most memorable music videos, of course, are usually the most expensive. These are the most expensive music videos in the world.

5. Puff [...]