29-11-2010, 18:49
My opinion of bootlegs has been coloured by the poor quality that I experienced some years ago, so I haven't tried any for ages.
I think that artists should have some degree of rights over quality control, and can see why they don't want certain material seeing the light of day. That being said, there seems to be no shortage of customers or suppliers of bootlegs, so there's obviously a bit of a market for them.
I like the Grateful Dead approach of encouraging fans to record live gigs, and then providing cheap, well produced live material for sale. Lots & lots of it.
The official release of Dylan's "Albert Hall Concert" - Bootleg Series Vol 4 - is probably the best release I've heard of a pre-existing bootleg. In fact, Dylan & Neil Young are finding there's a rich financial seam to be mined with official releases of live archive material...
I think that artists should have some degree of rights over quality control, and can see why they don't want certain material seeing the light of day. That being said, there seems to be no shortage of customers or suppliers of bootlegs, so there's obviously a bit of a market for them.
I like the Grateful Dead approach of encouraging fans to record live gigs, and then providing cheap, well produced live material for sale. Lots & lots of it.
The official release of Dylan's "Albert Hall Concert" - Bootleg Series Vol 4 - is probably the best release I've heard of a pre-existing bootleg. In fact, Dylan & Neil Young are finding there's a rich financial seam to be mined with official releases of live archive material...