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Re: Downloads & Submarines



>If it's to be available as a release, I don't see how any bootlegging will 
>be a factor. Pirating, really. And I thought this was a charity event; why 
>wouldn't the money for the CD also go for charity (as is usually the case)?

The performance has already been bootlegged, hasn't it?  So now that it's 
released, selling or trading it becomes pirating?  Some folks are very 
careful to make the distinction between the two. You're likely right about 
the money from the cd going to the Maryville Academy rather than to Pete.


> > It could even be a matter of who's in CONTROL of giving away the music.
>
>I think in this case it would have to be Pete. No way a label would!

Maybe MCA/Polydor wouldn't do something like that, but other labels are more 
current.  I think PT's giving it away in cooperation with Platinum, which 
already used downloads to promote RD's CELEBRATION album.  Wasn't PT's 
performance of "Who Are You" from that cd something of a download hit while 
it was up?  Here's a clip from the press release:

>Downers Grove, Illinois-September 15, 1999 - Platinum Entertainment Inc's 
>upcoming release, Pete Townshend Live: A Benefit For Maryville Academy 
>marks a historic Internet opportunity where fans will be the deciding 
>factor in choosing which song from the recording project will be the lead 
>single promoted to radio.  This release will be in stores on September 
>21,1999.

>Starting Sept 20, 1999, Pete Townshend Live: A Benefit For Maryville 
>Academy will be posted exclusively at Musicmaker.com's website for 
>promotion (and later for sale) with it's entire musical content - with a 
>limit of one track at a time - available for free download for one week. At 
>the end of this period, the song that has attracted the most downloads will 
>then be recommended to radio stations across the nation.

This last is market research to find out which is the most popular track and 
have some stats to send along to the radio stations, better than just 
picking a song and saying "duh, would you play this on your station?"  I've 
heard people complain that "English Boy" wasn't the best track to promote 
PSYCHOD.


>Not being a lawyer, I can't say...it's just the usual pattern of these 
>things. The labels and/or unusually anal retentive artists will object to 
>free downloads on private sites, and will attempt (at least) to make laws 
>to stop it. Surely you've noticed that every day a little freedom slips 
>away from us in this "free country" of ours.

Okay.  It's already covered by the contracts.  Labels own the rights to all 
the old PT albums and they can stop him from putting the recordings up for 
download, but what he can do with any new recordings are defined in the new 
contracts.

This is a good one for trial and error.  As you say, he's likely 
experimenting with Maryville's money, and it seems he's picked a label 
that's into innovative marketing.  Free downloads on private sites might be 
regarded as piracy, but Platinum's likely taken the view that circulation is 
a form of promotion.  Old companies like MCA/Polydor are putting their 
efforts into protection instead, like the new DVD WHO'S NEXT.


keets

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