Bootleg recording: Difference between revisions

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A bootleg recording is an

fans

of the artist without financial exchange, but some bootleggers are able to sell these rarities for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw material.

Some artists consider any release for which they do not receive

royalties to be equivalent to a bootleg, even if it is an officially licensed release. This is often the case with artists whose recordings have either become public domain or whose original agreements did not include reissue royalties (which was a common occurrence in the 1950s

and before).

In the

stadium or arena rock. Bands with mass followings, such as Led Zeppein, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones

created a fertile and lucrative market for the mass production of unofficial recordings, as it became evident that more and more fans would purchase unofficial recordings released on vinyl. In addition, the huge crowds which turned up to these concerts made the policing of the audience for the presence of recording equipment virtually impossible for officials. With the conversion of many of these bootlegs onto the CD format in the 1990s, thousands of different live recordings of these bands are still circulating today amongst fans, even though the live shows themselves were performed over thirty years ago.

The market outlets for bootlegs-for-sale have been varied.

KISS, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Queen

.

Sources of material

Some bootlegs consist of works-in-progress or discarded material distributed without the artist's involvement, and sometimes against his or her will; these might be made from master recordings stolen or copied from a

ROIO

" -- a "recording of indeterminate origin".

Live bootlegs

Bootlegs can also be recorded "unofficially" with gear smuggled into a live concert—many artists and most live venues prohibit this form of recording, but modern portable technology has made such bootlegging increasingly easy and has dramatically improved the quality of "audience" recordings.

The yyyy-mm-dd (year-month-day) format is commonly associated with labeling concerts for the easy auto-arrange feature associated with computer files.

A number of bootlegs originated with FM radio broadcasts of live or previously recorded live performances.

"Official" bootlegs

Many recordings first distributed as bootleg albums were later released officially by the copyright holder; for instance in 2002 Dave Matthews Band released Busted Stuff in response to the Internet-fueled success of The Lillywhite Sessions which they had not intended to release, while The Beatles' release of their Anthology albums effectively killed the demand for many Beatles bootlegs previously available.

Bob Dylan has released an entire bootleg series, which as of 2005 had seven "volumes" (but only five discrete releases).
Beat the Boots recordings in 1991 and 1992
, remastered directly from bootleg discs. Zappa also copied the packaging directly from the bootleg releases, adding no additional material other than a cardboard box (they were available as a boxed set of LPs or as individual CD releases).

In 1994,

Prince

finally released The Black Album, initially shelved in 1987 and widely bootlegged since then.

MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was distributed to fans on vinyl and released independently as a gesture of defiance to Virgin Records
, who the band felt didn't give them the support they needed.

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy is one of the most vocal pro-bootleg musicians (despite the band not having an open taping policy), running an official bootleg label called YtseJam Records.
Spunk by Sex Pistols had an authorized release by Sanctuary Records
in July 2006.

The Velvet Underground - The Quine Tapes (Bootleg Series Volume 1).
Most of Swans' live catalogue (Feel Good Now, Public Castration is a Good Idea, etc.) began as bootleg recordings made by band members.

Authorized live bootlegs

An increasing number of artists have allowed and encouraged live audience recording, but they and their fans generally consider selling such recordings—as opposed to keeping them for one's own personal enjoyment or trading them for other audience recordings—to be illegitimate bootlegging. Fans cite the encouragement of these recordings as a key factor in their long-term loyalty to these bands.

The Grateful Dead is famous for explicitly allowing their shows to be taped. Also, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on his David Gilmour in Concert DVD said before the song "Smile," "This is a new song so if you're bootlegging start your machines now," and stated on In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Dark Side of the Moon in 1993 that he had no problems with fans bootlegging the shows (especially the pre-Dark Side of the Moon performance called "Eclipse" in early 1972). Roger Waters

also said about bootlegging in a 2000 MSN webchat "I think it's a healthy hobby."

The Mars Volta also encourage bootlegging, and nearly every show the band has ever played has been recorded, but when the band released their live album Scabdates, sales did not seem to suffer.

In 2004 the band Oasis included fan-made bootleg audio and video recordings in the special features of a DVD celebrating the the 10-year anniversary of the release of Definitely Maybe. Noel Gallagher has been a keen advocate of live bootlegs and has stated that he had several bootlegs of The Beatles live gigs in his CD collection as he was never able to go and see them live.

Other bands which encourage live bootlegging include Metallica, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, The Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Ween, the German electronic music ensemble Tangerine Dream, and Medeski Martin & Wood.

A few artists like Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Buffett, Fugazi, Pearl Jam and Duran Duran have responded to the demand for bootleg concert recordings by experimenting with the sale of authorized bootlegs made directly from the unmixed soundboard feeds, or from on-the-fly multi-track mixes, and thus superior to surreptitious audience recordings which are typically marred by crowd noise. These releases are generally available a few days to a few weeks after the concert.

In the mid-

Clear Channel Communications

, which has led to complaints from smaller competitors and uncertainty on the future development of the technology in the United States.

Bootlegging in the vinyl era

In

The Screaming Abdabs

.

Collectors generally relied on Hot Wacks, which was a catalog of known bootlegs published annually, for the actual artists and track listings as well as source and sound quality information.

Bastard pop

In the early 2000s, "bootleg" became an alternate term for

bastard pop or "mashups", a style of remix melding two or more music records into each other to make a new piece of music out of the old components. The term was likely derived from the fact that early examples copied sound clips without paying royalties to the original artist. Among the most popular artists in this genre are The Freelance Hellraiser, Soundhog, Go Home Productions, Soulwax and Lionel Vinyl

.

Bootlegging vs. piracy vs. counterfeiting

Bootlegging is often incorrectly referred to as piracy but there are important differences between the two terms. Bootlegging is trafficking in recordings that the record companies have not commercially released and may or may not be legal. Piracy is the illegal copying/sale of recordings that are available commercially or are planned/scheduled for commercial release.

A pirate release is further distinguished from a counterfeit. Counterfeits attempt to mimic the look of officially released product; pirate releases do not necessarily do so, possibly substituting cover art or creating new compilations of a group's released songs. A counterfeit is always a pirate but a pirate is not necessarily a counterfeit. Historically, pirate (but not counterfeit) releases were widespread in the 8-track cartridge format, many with labels spuriously claiming that "all royalties have been paid."

"Bootlegging" is sometimes also used to refer to the unlicensed

filesharing of copyrighted

music but, as alluded to above, the term piracy is often more appropriate. In the same vein, "bootlegging" has become the default term amongst anime fans to describe the piracy of CD's, DVD's, games and other Japanese merchandise. These increasingly sophisticated imitation goods from Hong Kong are much reviled by fans and the industry alike. Nowadays, many anime conventions have a strict non-bootleg policy.

External links

DISCLAIMER: The following links to online bootleg communities are being provided because they all have strict copyright standards - no copyrighted material may ever be shared in any of these communities, and they are completely non-profit.

DigitalBoots - An online directory of bootleg communities
Bootleg Archive - Website for a Direct Connect hub of lossless bootlegs
Dimeadozen
Etree - BitTorrents from trader-friendly artists
Live Music Archive
The Traders Den

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 Some artists consider any release for which they do not receive [[Royalties|royalties]] to be equivalent to a bootleg, even if it is an officially licensed release. This is often the case with artists whose recordings have either become [[public domain]] or whose original agreements did not include reissue royalties (which was a common occurrence in the [[1950s]] and before).
+In the [[United States]], the bootleg industry rapidly expanded in the decade of the [[1970s]], conciding with the era of [[stadium rock|stadium]] or [[arena rock]]. Bands with mass followings, such as [[Led Zeppein]], [[Pink Floyd]] and [[The Rolling Stones]] created a fertile and lucrative market for the mass production of unofficial recordings, as it became evident that more and more fans would purchase unofficial recordings released on vinyl. In addition, the huge crowds which turned up to these concerts made the policing of the audience for the presence of recording equipment virtually impossible for officials. With the conversion of many of these bootlegs onto the CD format in the 1990s, thousands of different live recordings of these bands are still circulating today amongst fans, even though the live shows themselves were performed over thirty years ago.
 The market outlets for bootlegs-for-sale have been varied. [[Swap meet]]s, street vending, record collector shows, and smaller record stores would stock them. [[Mail order]] and Internet sources were advertised by word of mouth, and there have been assorted unique sources for individual bands. There were major bootleg markets in Japan and Europe for bands like [[KISS (band)|KISS]], [[The Rolling Stones]], [[Led Zeppelin]], and [[Queen (band)|Queen]].