Grateful Dead to Allow Free Web Downloads

[Blane]

Looks like they're back!!

What a short, strange trip it was. After the Grateful Dead angered some of its biggest fans by asking a nonprofit Web site to halt the free downloading of its concert recordings, the psychedelic jam band changed its mind Wednesday.

Internet Archive, a site that catalogues content on Web sites, reposted recordings of Grateful Dead concerts for download after the surviving members of the band decided to make them available again.

Band spokesman Dennis McNally said the group was swayed by the backlash from fans, who for decades have freely taped and traded the band's live performances.

"The Grateful Dead remains as it always has — in favor of tape trading," McNally said.

He said the band consented to making audience recordings available for download again, although live recordings made directly from concert soundboards, which are the legal property of the Grateful Dead, should only be made available for listening from now on.

The soundboard recordings are "very much part of their legacy, and their rights need to be protected," McNally said.

Representatives for the band earlier this month had directed the Internet Archive to stop making recordings of the group's concerts available for download. But fans quickly initiated an online petition that argued the band shouldn't change the rules midway through the game.

"The internet archive has been a resource that is important to all of us," states the petition, which also threatened a boycott of Grateful Dead recordings and merchandise. "Between the music, and interviews in the archive we are able to experience the Grateful Dead fully."

The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following the death of guitarist and lead singer Jerry Garcia. The group once set concert attendance records and generated millions of dollars in revenue from extensive tours.

With concert tickets now removed as a source of revenue, sales of the band's music and other merchandise have become increasingly important in an age where music is distributed digitally instead of on CDs, vinyl and cassette tapes.

And the arrival of Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes online music store, and other similar sites, means free downloads can be seen as competition, said Marc Schiller, chief executive of Electricartists, which helps musicians market themselves online.

The band sells music on iTunes and exclusive shows through its Web site.

"When the music was given away for free to trade, the band was making so much money touring that the music was not as valuable to them," Schiller said. "Apple iTunes has made digital downloads a business."

The Grateful Dead's freeform improvisational style led to vastly different sounding songs, from year to year or even night to night. A song that lasted four minutes during one performance could be stretched to 20 minutes during a different show.

Fans eager to explore the varying versions frequently built large collections of shows spanning the band's 30-year career. The band even encouraged recording of their live shows, establishing a cordoned section for fans to set up taping equipment.

Representatives from the Internet Archive didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday.

[jay sanislo]

good news!

[jonyak]

sweet baby jesus.

[\/\/illy]

Wow. I can't believe they sort of reversed it.

[Booche]

Mickey Hart has something to say as well:

Dear Fans,

As you know, The Grateful Dead recently made a decision to pull soundboard recordings from Internet websites that previously offered them to the public for no charge. The Grateful Dead organization has been very generous in recent years in our trading policy, offering virtually every performance for download.

It is the opinion of myself as well as some other members of the organization that our policy is dated and has needed to be updated for some time. In the past, the Internet trading involved Deadheads contacting each other through message boards and newsgroups to set up trades by mail. With the development of new technologies, trading today is as simple as the click of a button and an entire live show is at a user's fingertips almost immediately.

By allowing fans to download our entire catalog quickly, effortlessly, and at no charge, we have been missing out on a fair amount of cash flow that could be used to buy new drums and headbands for myself, and maybe a shiny new Ferrari if all goes well. I'd look good in a Ferrari, admit it.

Several people inside the organization, including Phil "The Asshole" Lesh, think that our recordings should be widely available for free, as they have been. Unfortunately for Phil, he was never that important to the band and thus did not have as much say in the matter as MVPs like myself.

To help soften the blow that this policy change has given to fans, we will be making every soundboard recording of "Drums" available on dead.net for a limited time. So, stock up on the fire, and go see Hydra next time we tour!

Yours,

Mickey

[YearsAlongTheSea]

that's hilarious bouche ^^^

[Booche]

I wish I could take credit for it.

[bradm]

[color:purple]What about the songs Mickey sings? Will they be available for free download, or will I have to shell out big bucks to get them? Please, won't someone think about Mickey?

Aloha,

Brad

[M.O.B.E]

He forgot the part about taking this spirit you have felt here with you and spread it to the rest of the world

[The Chameleon]

Great news about the shows back on the archive, but please tell me that Mickey thing is a joke.

I'm getting stream ripper and getting those boards while the getting is good.

[MoMack]

Here's a question for anyone with a critical legal mind:

If the Dead allowed tapers to tape, and allowed them to patch into the SBD, then do they really own what comes out of it? ie. shouldn't that person, who recorded with permission, be able to do as he pleases with the recording? Of course, this is subject to the restriction on making a profit, which formed part of the initial consent to taping access in the first part.

The fact that the technologies have changed shouldn't really impact the fact that the original contract allowed tapers to freely distribute as long as they didn't make money. This contract had consideration going both ways, to the taper the music, to the band the publicity etc.

Anyone? Stonemtn?

[bouche]

That's kind of the way I look at it MoMack.

what if the Dead didn't go out of their way to record. Someone else decided to put their hard efforts into capturing sound waves with the highest fidelity possible. It's SOUND WAVES! no one owns those!

Now the guy who patched in to equipment owned by the Dead, captures the electrical signals that the Dead are generating and transmitting with their owned equipment...who owns that?

[timouse]

That's kind of the way I look at it MoMack.

what if the Dead didn't go out of their way to record. Someone else decided to put their hard efforts into capturing sound waves with the highest fidelity possible. It's SOUND WAVES! no one owns those!

Now the guy who patched in to equipment owned by the Dead, captures the electrical signals that the Dead are generating and transmitting with their owned equipment...who owns that?

as i understand it, sbd patches were fairly paid for with bribes to dan healy...this further reinforces the taper's ownsership of said tapes...stone mtn???

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

And from what gossip I heard, Healey lost his seat over it to boot (damn those white drugs!).