The New World of ‘Legal Bootleg’ Concert Recordings

In an age when the movie industry is starting to send anti-piracy enforcers with night-vision goggles into movie theaters, to locate people who are making unauthorized recording, some parts of the music industry are still thriving on the power of the passed-on tape. New technologies are making it easier to make -- and share -- "bootleg" recordings, and some bands and their fans couldn't be happier.

Wired magazine (April 2003) reports that concert audiences are more wired than ever -- with pen-sized microphones, portable DAT recorders, even tiny laptop computers. Some revelers pack wireless receivers, which can be tuned to find the wireless signals the bands themselves now use to transmit their instrument and microphone signals to the mixing board (or to the musicians' in-ear monitors).

Trading communities now span the globe and use the Internet to find each other and share their booty. And new file formats are leaving MP3 behind -- the Shorten or FLAC format is favored by many sharing sites because it does not alter the recording when it compresses the file size.

While some music executives and industry advocates are alarmed by yet another technological incursion into the traditional rules of musical commerce, some artists condone or even promote the practice of creating bootlegs. Long before the Internet, the Grateful Dead set aside sections of audience seating to make it easier for tapers to get good results. The subculture of "authorized bootlegs" helped make their shows legendary.

Today, non-commercial fan sites such as etree.org, furthurnet.org, phishhook.com, gdlive.com, and shns.net continue the tradition, and walk the fine line between helping promote an artist and undermining the artist's own sales. According to a March 6, 2003 article in the New York Times, etree alone has 25,000 active file traders, with a single trader in Cleveland reported to have about 10,000 live recordings available for exchange.

There was a time when bands couldn't work out a way to tell whose turn it was to drive the bus. Latter day jam favorite Phish now has an official "Audio Recording and Transfer Policy" on its web site.

Read the complete Wired article

Read the March 6, 2003 NY Times article [fee required]

Visit sharing sites etree.org, furthurnet.org, phishhook.com, gdlive.com, and shns.net

Read the Phish official audio recording and transfer policy