Quote:
Originally Posted by renegadeangel
People are doing that already with full concerts.
It's completely up to Meat to do what he feels is best for him. I started this thread as I found it interesting that Springsteen is doing it now after so many years of no official live releases save for a few.
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Bruce addressed this in a recent interview (bold emphasis is mine):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2...ce-springsteen
Quote:
Do you have concerns? Some musicians are concerned about piracy or issues around that with the Internet but you seem to be very eager.
I knew that when the smartest man in the music business that I knew was selling headsets, I knew that you were going to have to stop worrying about that completely. It's like my buddy, "Jimmy [Iovine], what are you gonna do about music?" "I'm gonna sell headsets." You're always concerned about it. And look, I think for somebody like me, it's a lot less of an issue. I have a friend who didn't have their own label, put their records out and if they sold 50,000 of those records it kept them in breakfast cereal for a couple of years. And so I think, you know, those were the guys that got hurt by the decrease in record sales from Internet piracy. And I remain being one of those guys that believes you should get paid for your work so I'm old-fashioned in that. And but at the same time, it's there and it has many benefits and the idea of, I think we live more in a touring idea that everything you do is recorded now. And that's OK with me, you know. As a matter of fact, I believe on this tour, we're starting to do something like you can come in, you can buy a [wrist]band, you can get a copy of the night's show. So hopefully we're gonna do that at a really nice-quality level.
We came from the polar opposite. We started out as being very, very controlling. Now it's just a different playing field and so it's exciting: We have our little website and we've been throwing some things from the last tour. If there was a great performance that night, somebody can mix it quickly. We got a guy who directs the show great. And suddenly, we caught a version of "New York City Serenade" from Rome that I was just so glad we had, you know? It was one of those things like it was just a perfect night; we had a string section and the guys played it beautifully. And when I saw it, I said, "I'm so glad this exists." And it wouldn't exist if we weren't thinking about getting it out that way and doing those things. So I'm looking forward to expanding and using more of that in the future and hopefully our fans will enjoy it and it'll give us another canvas to paint on.
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I think Bruce is likely using the "Royal We" in the second paragraph.
He used to be a HUGE perfectionist (to the point of OCD, I think- seriously), but that has changed gradually over the years.
Going by this interview and others he's given recently, I think he realizes that he's not going to be around forever, and he's looking to get more music out to the fans. He's regretting not releasing more. He's said, "The light from the oncoming train focuses the mind."
As a fan, this is a fantastic thing! It's not new to the music industry, but this is a huge change in thinking for Bruce- letting go must be difficult for him.
This is something the hardcore fanbase has wanted for many, many years. We have the bootlegs, but to (possibly) get some of those classic shows in pristine quality would be a dream come true.
Not to mention, some of the unreleased material he's got sitting in vaults. Sure, some people will still download stuff for free, but most will pay. He's actually going to
reduce the amount of bootlegging going on by doing this.
In regards to Meat, one big difference between his shows and Bruce's (as well as some other bands) is that every show is different, and that makes them more attractive to collectors, as opposed to only the fans who attended a particular show and want a souvenir.