from nick,

they would release full shows on the internet in the future, i would love to have the 93 gainesville show oaand the 81 la forum show, i know there are several boots of the 93 show, but the sound is nowhere as good as the live anthology tracks, they could release a new show ever month or so, who would buy

There could be some legal issues, such as whether the recordings would be allowed within the MCA or Warner contracts, or whether those labels were due some compensation for such releases. Also possible compensation issues regarding musicians, engineers, songwriters (when covers are involved), etc. But if there are no major (or insurmountable) legal hurdles, I don't see why the band couldn't release some (or all) full show recordings as digital downloads, much like the Superhighway Tour itself is being done now.

Releasing live recordings by an artist was more of a problem in the past, for a variety of reasons. For one thing - earlier live recordings weren't always very good, for another thing - putting a live show on an LP would require multiple LP's, for another - record stores have limited space and would not want to carry low-demand, space grabbing product, etc. But modern technology has changed all of that, from the recording quality to the recorded media to the distribution channels.

I feel that music labels have been far too slow to understand and embrace the possibilities brought about by new techologies. Record labels complain about falling CD sales and blame digital piracy, but they could probably more than make up for that by issuing more product (recorded concerts in particular), digitally via the internet. Or at least offer more live recordings as CDs and DVDs, sold over the internet, such as from the artist's home page and/or mass online retailers such as Amazon - and in retail record stores if the demand is there too. Of course your question is about the chances (i.e. odds), not the potential. The answer to that I suppose is "who knows", but I would also say that the odds are higher now than they have ever been.

That's a great idea. Even if they only put up 1 or 2 shows from each tour they would still have quite a number of shows I would think. I'm not sure what the recording procedure is though when they perform. I imagine there's a good soundboard recording but I don't know about the shows being filmed. It would really only be worthwhile if they were good, high quality recordings, not some wobbly cell phone video like you see on the YouTube.

I completely agree with you MM about record labels being slow to embrace the digital record store. Further to your point I always though it would be a great idea for artists to sell their records on their own wewbsite and land a major sponsor to help keep the prices down. I doubt TP would ever do this, but Jimmy Buffet has always been sponsored by Corona, why not make Corona pay $1 towards every album that was donwloanded and then pass the savings along to the consumer. I'd watch a couple 30 second commercials if it kept the album prices at a reasonable cost.

The obvious starting point would be releasing the shows from which the live anthology has been distilled. I was gobsmacked by the sound quality of Nightwatchman.

One big question would be, how much work has gone into the mixing and mastering of the live anthology tracks? It may not be economically viable to do this for entire concerts.

It's interesting that the bands who have some success with making available downloads of multiple shows - often every show of a new tour - are the ones who have encouraged the culture whereby fans share for free recordings of their shows... Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, Black Crowes, etc., etc.

from nick,

i am specifically speaking about mp3 recordings, not video, and they don't have to release alot, but one from each tour, or again the special shows, even if the put out one for each tour, they would not require too much work, it would be their own bootleg series, im sure you can tell i am still angry at all the staple songs left off the anthology series,

quote:

Originally posted by artinis1:
from nick,

i am specifically speaking about mp3 recordings, not video, and they don't have to release alot, but one from each tour, or again the special shows, even if the put out one for each tour, they would not require too much work, it would be their own bootleg series, im sure you can tell i am still angry at all the staple songs left off the anthology series,

TP mentioned a few years back that he'd like to set up a site where fans could pay a monthly fee and they could download as many bootlegs as they wanted. It never came to pass though obviously.

Also Mp3 is a lossy format. If you are interested in optimal sound quality FLAC is certainly the way to go. The band seems to see things the same way and have offered both Mp3s and FLACs for the "Superhighway Tour".