Van The Man Requests File Sharing Ban
Van Morrison, one of the most heavily bootlegged performers in Rock & Roll history, seems to have had a change of attitude towards fans who record his concerts and disseminates them using concert file sharing sites. VTM, along with performers such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen, have had a uneasy and unofficially tolerated relationship with the hard core fans who seek out their live concert recordings and studio outtakes. However, the internet and digital recording devices have changed the way that this material is distributed. Recently, Morrison has taken unprecedented steps to curtail fans from recording and distributing his material.
Bootleg recordings have been a prominent and colorful part of the rock music scene since the early sixties, when collectors started recording Bob Dylan's every twitch, and expanded to include every major act of the classic rock era and beyond. Live concert recordings were once made on bulky cassette players that invariably had the fidelity of a transistor radio playing at the end of a railroad tunnel. Pressed to vinyl, these records would be kept behind record store counters and sold to true believers willing to tolerate the atrocious sound quality.
Bittorent file sharing sites and easily concealed digital recording devices have changed the underground ethos that bootleg collectors once shared. Looking at how recent Van Morrison concerts have made the rounds of his fans is an instructive way to observe the new paradigm. Morrison has kept an active live performance schedule, playing on average, six concerts a month, mostly in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. Before bittorent, networks of fans would trade concert cassettes and later CD's by mail, a practice that Van had long ignored. But with the advent of file sharing, it is no longer just his most dedicated fans obtaining this material, it is readily available to anyone remotely curious with a fast internet connection. Today, it is not uncommon to find recent Morrison performances available at file sharing sites within hours of their conclusion in high quality digital sound.
Dimeadozen is one of the most prominent of these legally questionable concert sharing sites. Unlike pirate websites that will allow anyone to post anything, dimeadozen has a strict policy of not allowing any officially released material, only permitting live concerts and unreleased studio recordings from artists who do not expressly prohibit their distribution. Once an artist or their representatives inform the moderators that they no longer want their music on the site, it is prohibited. Until now, this is a action that relatively few artists have taken.
Recently, representatives of Van Morrison have requested dimedozen to crease allowing his material on the site and they have complied. This isn't the only step he has taken. Morrison will be performing at the Austin Music Hall during the SXSW festival and the GetTix website has this loud and prominent warning to any potential bootleggers:
Filming,Recording & Photography
are Prohibited!!!
*Violators Will Be Subject To Ejection
And Confiscation of Equipment*
Whether these actions will have any effect on the distribution of concert material is highly doubtful. There are few roadblocks preventing fans from setting up websites like RustRadio, a Neil Young fan site that starts broadcasting his concerts almost as soon as the last note has sounded. A much better solution that allows artists to be compensated for their creativity and fans to quickly and cheaply obtain concert recordings is for artists to make them available at their own websites or on itunes. This will certainly not stop the bootlegging of concerts but it offers some benefits to both artist and fan. One thing that is certain: the file sharing horse has left the barn and will not be coming back.
Also see:
Van The Man Fan Websites Shut Down
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