Exploring Music Trading :: Essays Papers

Exploring Music TradingBackgroundThe record of zippy music goes back over a century to the beginnings of audio transcription technology itself. The organized recording and trading of a bands live on shows by devoted fans, however, is generally traced back to the new-made 60s or early 70s. The offshoot band which allowed and encouraged such activity was, of course, the Grateful Dead. Although the Dead neer had a true piano tuner hit, they were able to become the most consistently successful touring act of all duration in no dwarfish part by allowing their fans to record and then trade (but never sell) copies of apiece of their live shows. Both the library and music trading communities may contract themselves under profit-minded assault in the present and near future. By the time the Grateful Dead called it a career in 1995 with the death of guitarist and guru Jerry Garcia, a go of other bands had taken notice and were emulating the practice of allowing audition taping a nd trading. Prominent among these bands were first-wave HORDE (named for a successful festival tour) or jambands such as Phish and Blues Traveler. Despite the lack of MTV or radio support, Phish managed to gross over $20 million per year from their tours in the late 90s. The band consistently sold out venues for multi-day runs, while MTV-friendly bands were playing in front of half-full houses. While there is no real estimate of the number of touring bands today which allow audience taping and trading, a rough regard would place the low end at well over a hundred (given that 80-taper friendly bands were at the High Sierra Music festival last summer, and at least an equal number were not). Many of these bands straightway allow, encourage or initiate the posting of their shows to various online sites such as www.archive.org (a must-see site for all library types, not just for the excellent live shows contained therein), usually in SHN or FLAC formats, where they are available for f ree transfer to any unity with a high-speed connection.Given the harsh attitude of the major recording labels (as expressed through the Recording Industry Association of Americas various peer-to-peer lawsuits) toward unlicenced dispersal of copyrighted recordings on the ground that it damages the fortunes of their artists authors note one should be properly skeptical of any record company claims of absorb in their artists well being, why, then would bands allow the essentially free distribution of live shows?