on 11/29/02 11:12 AM, john schuller at superbadassmofo@hotmail.com wrote:
I was curious as to some opinions on the subjects of CD Burning or Unauthorized Duplication.
I have been in an ongoing discussion with a friend of mine on the subject. He is very much against it. I am against it on true independent releases, and for it on major label releases and artificial independent labels. In the case of my own release, I do not mind if it gets duplicated. My friend says I am crazy for thinking that way...
For the majority of the music discussed on this list, I don't think it's that big an issue. The bulk of us here tend to be really into what we're really into, and form a pretty active consumership, so we tend to buy probably 80%. I know that, if I know I can't someoneone into buying something I think they'd like, I'll burn 'em a disc. If my surmise is/was right, then that person will pay money to go see the performer, and buy future releases. As for true indies, I agree, but the problem so often is that you have little chance of buying that release unless the band comes to your town. Sometimes the only way the music gets to travel outside its home area code is that a couple of people decide to dupe the thing and send it to their pals.
He is also very much against audience taping. I happen to love it because it gives me a chance to hear live versions of music that will probably never see the light of day. I love it when someone tapes my music live, in fact I find it to be an honor. I am however against the sale of audience recordings.
Different bands have different philsophies. Obviously, the Grateful Dead mandate audience taping. NRBQ, on the other hand, especially Terry Adams, hate it. On the other hand, Terry looked the other way when he asked me to join the band and sub for their guitar player for a week, as about 35% of any given set had never been made commercially available, and I had to learn the material somehow. So even the guys who have hard and fast rules don't have iron-clad practices. My own personal thing on this is that hardly anybody ever makes thweir commplete output available, and -- especially if the band is improvising oriented -- the hardcore fans, who buy every legit thing they ever hear about -- are buying tickets to the shows and every other legit piece of merchandise. The trading of audience tapes (or downloads) is pretty much a non-issue in terms of general use. Live tapes and studio outtakes are going to circulate through the community any band establishes.The fans who aren't hardcore won't bother. The fans who are hardcore about it understand the difference between the legit releases and the other stuff that no harm is committed against the band by people hearing that stuff. Think of how many of us Brian Wilson fanatics are listening to SMILE and digging it. Hasn't hurt Brian's status one damn bit. skip h