![[Main Page]](/modules/mediawiki/images/mediawiki.png)
Contents |
Bootleg??? Was ist das?!?
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. A great many such recordings are simply copied and traded among fans of the artist without financial exchange, but some bootleggers are able to sell these rarities for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw material.
Some artists consider any release for which they do not receive royalties to be equivalent to a bootleg, even if it is an officially licensed release. This is often the case with artists whose recordings have either become public domain or whose original agreements did not include reissue royalties (which was a common occurrence in the 1950s and before).
History of bootlegging
The first recognised bootleg in the United States dated from 1961, a collection of Bob Dylan recordings and miscellaneous studio out-takes, as well as seven tracks from the Basement Tapes sessions, all released under the name of The Great White Wonder due to the fact that the sleeve was plain white. A lucrative, yet highly illegal business was born, and the United Kingdom followed soon after with a live recording of Jimi Hendrix at the Royal Albert Hall.
During the 1970s the bootleg industry in the United States rapidly expanded, conciding with the era of stadium or arena rock. The large followings of bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones created a fertile and lucrative market for the mass production of unofficial recordings on vinyl, as it became evident that more and more fans would purchase unofficial recordings. In addition, the huge crowds which turned up to these concerts made the effective policing of the audience for the presence of recording equipment virtually impossible.
In Los Angeles there were a number of record mastering and pressing plants that were not "first in line" to press records for the major labels, usually only getting work when the larger plants were overloaded. These pressing plants were more than happy to generate income by pressing bootlegs of dubious legality. Sometimes they just hid the bootleg work when record company executives would come around (in which case the bootleg record labels could show the artist and song names) and other times secrecy required labels with fictitious names. For example, a 1972 Pink Floyd bootleg called Brain Damage was released under the name The Screaming Abdabs.
Throughout the 1970s most bootleg records were still poorly pressed with photocopied covers. The emergence of European "Labels" such as Swinging Pig later in the decade saw limited editions, coloured vinyls and most importantly, constantly better quality recordings. This trend in improved audio and packaging standard was carried forward into the 1980s.
Bootleg collectors in this era generally relied on Hot Wacks, a magazine catalog of known bootlegs published annually, for information about recently-released bootlegs. It included details on artists and track listings, as well as the source and sound quality of the various recordings.
The 1980s saw the increased use of cassettes and videos for the unofficial recording of live shows, particularly as these mediums were easier to make, more transportable and could be sold more cheaply than vinyl. A thriving industry emerged in getting tape recorders tacked onto the mixing desk at almost every show. Glastonbury and other big festivals had stalls where it was possible buy recordings of bands who had played only hours before. It was not until the early 1990s that these stalls were raided and the festival bootlegs declined.
In the 1990s there was a widespread conversion of many of bootlegs onto the CD format. Unofficial recordings became more readily available than ever before, resulting in thousands of bootlegs being circulated amongst avid collectors and fans, in many cases of shows which were recorded over thirty years previously. Using loopholes in European law, companies in Italy and Germany pressed vast numbers of CDs. They had superb catalogues of titles on the inlays and collectors could buy direct. The CDs were attractive, well recorded and often more exciting than the official releases.
The market outlets for bootlegs-for-sale have been varied. In the early years, bootlegs could invariably be found at swap meets, street vending, record collector shows, and smaller record stores. In more recent times mail order and internet sources have become more common, often advertised by word of mouth, and in many cases uniquely associated with individual bands. There are major bootleg markets in Japan and Europe for bands like KISS, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Queen.
Types of bootlegs
Some bootlegs consist of works-in-progress or discarded material distributed without the artist's involvement, and sometimes against his or her will. These might be made from master recordings stolen or copied from a recording studio or a record label's offices, or from demo recordings. If the source is unclear, some collectors label certain items "ROIO" -- a "recording of indeterminate origin".
Other bootlegs, commonly referred to as "audience recordings," are recorded "unofficially" with equipment smuggled into a live concert. Almost always, artists and most live venues prohibit this form of recording, but from the 1970s onwards the increased availability of portable technology made such bootlegging increasingly easy, and as this technology has improved so too has the general quality of these audience recordings.
The yyyy-mm-dd (year-month-day) format is commonly associated with labeling concerts for the easy auto-arrange feature associated with computer files.
A number of bootlegs originated with FM radio broadcasts of live or previously recorded live performances.
Authorized live bootlegs
An increasing number of artists have allowed and encouraged live audience recording, but they and their fans generally consider selling such recordings—as opposed to keeping them for one's own personal enjoyment or trading them for other audience recordings—to be illegitimate bootlegging. Fans cite the encouragement of these recordings as a key factor in their long-term loyalty to these bands.
The Grateful Dead is well known for explicitly allowing their shows to be taped. Also, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on his David Gilmour in Concert DVD said before the song "Smile," "This is a new song so if you're bootlegging start your machines now," and stated on In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Dark Side of the Moon in 1993 that he had no problems with fans bootlegging the shows (especially the pre-Dark Side of the Moon performance called "Eclipse" in early 1972). Roger Waters also said about bootlegging in a 2000 MSN webchat "I think it's a healthy hobby."
The Mars Volta also encourage bootlegging, and nearly every show the band has ever played has been recorded, but when the band released their live album Scabdates, sales did not seem to suffer.
In 2004 the band Oasis included fan-made bootleg audio and video recordings in the special features of a DVD celebrating the the 10-year anniversary of the release of Definitely Maybe. Noel Gallagher has been a keen advocate of live bootlegs and has stated that he had several bootlegs of The Beatles live gigs in his CD collection as he was never able to go and see them live.
Other bands which encourage live bootlegging include Metallica, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, The Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Ween, the German electronic music ensemble Tangerine Dream, and Medeski Martin & Wood.
A few artists like Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Buffett, Fugazi, Pearl Jam and Duran Duran have responded to the demand for bootleg concert recordings by experimenting with the sale of authorized bootlegs made directly from the unmixed soundboard feeds, or from on-the-fly multi-track mixes, and thus superior to surreptitious audience recordings which are typically marred by crowd noise. These releases are generally available a few days to a few weeks after the concert.
In the mid-2000s, improving technology in high-speed CD reproduction made some of these "official boots" available to audience members immediately as they leave the concert; however, a key patent in the process (that of dividing the single recording into discrete digitally marked tracks) was bought by media giant Clear Channel Communications, which has led to complaints from smaller competitors and uncertainty on the future development of the technology in the United States.
"Official" bootlegs
Many recordings first distributed as bootleg albums were later released officially by the copyright holder; for instance in 2002 Dave Matthews Band released Busted Stuff in response to the Internet-fueled success of The Lillywhite Sessions which they had not intended to release, while The Beatles' release of their Anthology albums effectively killed the demand for many Beatles bootlegs previously available.
- Bob Dylan has released an entire bootleg series, which as of 2005 had seven "volumes" (but only five discrete releases).
- Frank Zappa released two series of Beat the Boots recordings in 1991 and 1992, remastered directly from bootleg discs. Zappa also copied the packaging directly from the bootleg releases, adding no additional material other than a cardboard box (they were available as a boxed set of LPs or as individual CD releases).
- In 1994, Prince finally released The Black Album, initially shelved in 1987 and widely bootlegged since then.
- The Smashing Pumpkins' last official album, MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was distributed to fans on vinyl and released independently as a gesture of defiance to Virgin Records, who the band felt didn't give them the support they needed.
- Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy is one of the most vocal pro-bootleg musicians (despite the band not having an open taping policy), running an official bootleg label called YtseJam Records.
- Spunk by Sex Pistols had an authorized release by Sanctuary Records in July 2006.
- The Velvet Underground - The Quine Tapes (Bootleg Series Volume 1).
- Most of Swans' live catalogue (Feel Good Now, Public Castration is a Good Idea, etc.) began as bootleg recordings made by band members.
Bastard pop
In the early 2000s, "bootleg" became an alternate term for bastard pop or "mashups", a style of remix melding two or more music records into each other to make a new piece of music out of the old components. The term was likely derived from the fact that early examples copied sound clips without paying royalties to the original artist. Among the most popular artists in this genre are The Freelance Hellraiser, Soundhog, Go Home Productions, Soulwax and Lionel Vinyl.
Bootlegging vs. piracy vs. counterfeiting
Bootlegging is often incorrectly referred to as piracy but there are important differences between the two terms. Bootlegging is trafficking in recordings that the record companies have not commercially released and may or may not be legal. Piracy is the illegal copying/sale of recordings that are available commercially or are planned/scheduled for commercial release.
A pirate release is further distinguished from a counterfeit. Counterfeits attempt to mimic the look of officially released product; pirate releases do not necessarily do so, possibly substituting cover art or creating new compilations of a group's released songs. A counterfeit is always a pirate but a pirate is not necessarily a counterfeit. Historically, pirate (but not counterfeit) releases were widespread in the 8-track cartridge format, many with labels spuriously claiming that "all royalties have been paid."
"Bootlegging" is sometimes also used to refer to the unlicensed filesharing of copyrighted music but, as alluded to above, the term piracy is often more appropriate. In the same vein, "bootlegging" has become the default term amongst anime fans to describe the piracy of CD's, DVD's, games and other Japanese merchandise. These increasingly sophisticated imitation goods from Hong Kong are much reviled by fans and the industry alike. Nowadays, many anime conventions have a strict non-bootleg policy.