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Kevin Robbins Essay

Perhaps, I will be proven wrong. Lord only knows, I've been wrong too many times to count. I would, however, offer a little reasonable evidence as to why the kind of thinking brought forward in the Tom Anderson's db.etree.org piece appears at least a bit reactionary. In fact, there is a resonance in Tom's piece with many positions on the digital era both by music fans and the music industry.

I still remember the day that Metallica announced that they were suing Napster over the distribution of "I Disappear." I remember how many fans disrespected the band they once lauded with worshipful praise. I remember words like "sell-out". In fact, many people can remember these phrases. Maybe, even a few of us used those words. What few people remember or admit is that in the midst of the Napster crisis Metallica never changed their open, if somewhat limited, taping policy. Likewise, they never changed their policy regarding the trading of live shows. I stand to be proven wrong, see the first paragraph, but I don't believe they have changed their stance on either of those issues in the wake of the lawsuit, either.

Now, we have numerous bands offering some variety of live shows for sale. In fact, Pearl Jam got my attention first when they started releasing recordings of entire tours. Other bands followed that practice. Live Phish forwarded the movement into the computer world, while the Dead began selling copies of their show immediately following the concert. While the Dead decided to rely on shipping the CD's at a later date to the purchaser, Clear Channel decided to get in on the act and begin immediate post-concert delivery. Now bands of all sizes from the Dead to Umphrey's McGee? have some form of concert recordings for sale as a part of their income stream.

Here's the curiosity: with the possible exception of Pearl Jam, none of these bands have severely restricted taping past the taping policies they had in place at the time of their decision to make recordings and sell them. That's right. Before Live Phish, you could tape from a taper's section with
audience microphones and distribute your recording in a not for profit fashion. Almost a year after Live Phish came into being, you can still tape from a taper's section and distribute your recordings in a non-profit manner. With the above noted exception, each band still allows taping. Interestingly, Umphrey's McGee? sells the same matrix show that taper's take home for free. The only difference is that the taper's get to bring home the encore as well.

Is it possible that these bands will eliminate taping in the future: certainly. Taping has always been a priviledge. Almost every band with a written taping policy notes that the policy can be revoked without notice. Again, that hasn't changed since well before the advent of concert CD's for sale. So, what's different now?

I think some of it has to do with the popularity of the bands we enjoy. Notably, as a band gets larger, they begin to take a larger interest in controlling the material that is out on the market. While most jam-bands don't distrust their fanbase, once a band reaches a certain level of commercial success, they do get targeted by less than ethical people. Likewise, artistic concerns arise concerning what music is being heard and set down for posterity. For any number of bands, the soundboard mix is not a good representation of what the band sounds like. Many guitarists are not mixed heavily into the soundboard, as they rely heavily on their on-stage amps for sound reinforcement.

Any number of bands have discontinued soundboard recordings. Interestingly, in modern times, as the bands have gone from smaller to larger theaters, the soundboard patch gotten disconnected. The size of the venue varies from band to band, but notably, as a band perceives that they are entering a larger market, they discontinue access to the board. For Blues Traveler, it was the runaway success of Runaround. For SCI, they allowed access until they moved into the 5,000+ seat venues. Yonder Mountain String Band in recent days has been selling out 1,500 seat venues. Interestingly, the band also began multi-track recording of all their shows. That may have some effect on the access, but there's an interesting caveat. YMSB still allows board access in venues deemed to be acoustically unforgiving. It's not a complete disconnect. Again, though, these soundboard access denials follow a historically trace-able pattern. From the Dead forward, at some point, almost every band discontinues the board.

I do not take such a dim view on the future of taping. The craft and the future of music is changing. There can be no question of those facts. What is up in the air is how tapers, fans, musicians, and music companies will interact with one another. The current history suggests that audience taping may become more limited, but will remain a part of the culture for the forseeable future. Indeed, if these bands feared competition from tapers, why haven't more of the bands in question shut taping down?

Again, I stand to be wrong. I have been before. Let's consider the history and facts before we predict the end of the hobby and the art of songcatching.

The Rev. Kevin A. Robbins