Thoughts on recording and "trading" live shows?

[Pharaohrock]

What are your guys and gals' thoughts about recording live shows that one attends with a MiniDisc, copying to CD, and then trading these recordings with others who have live shows recorded? Selling such recordings is obviously unethical, but is "trading" for other live shows much better?? Your thoughts please.....

[3pointdeli]

i think it's perfectly acceptable unless that particular performance is being recorded for a live album release or the artist has stated that he or she doesn't allow taping. let's face it, musicians can make a lot more money playing live than selling records. trading live tapes increases demand for live performances. look at mmw, phish, dead, etc. none of those bands have sold a lot of records considering how successful they are.

i'll make a bet right now:

you start putting mic stands in your audience (you don't even have to be recording, just have them set up) and watch over the course of, say, three or four months (of regular, fairly well promoted gigs), and you'll see that your audience will be three (or ten) times larger than it was before you set up that microphone stand...just because of what taping represents to a lot of kids these days. who cares if they're there becuase of something other than the music. if the music is good they'll stick around and come back every time you play.

also, you'd be hard pressed to find traders who don't also have ALL of the official recordings of the artists they trade, so how could that possibly hurt an artist?

some folks won't allow taping because they don't want a bad performance to get distributed widely. well, we all have our bad performances. let me ask this: should musicians really be concerned with impressing people who don't understand this fact?

for the record, i don't trade tapes (though i do have a few "bootleg" tapes) and i don't record concerts. i just think it's a win-win situation.

[jazzypaul]

I've been part of the tape trading scene for years. 3 point is right. And a lot of bands have realized this as well. It gets demand for more shows out there. It gets people interested in the band, and in the case of a so-so recording artist who is a monster of a live act (Primus comes to mind here, even moreso than Phish), it gets more people to the shows, as well. Even better for the band, the mentality is usually, well I'm at the show, I need the T-Shirt, the Bumper Sticker and the official band authorized 3 ring binder to prove to everyone that I was at the show. So the band more than likely gets more fans, more money, and more free advertising. So the musicians win out. And considering how cool it is to have a REALLY great show on tape, the fans win out too. To tell the truth, I don't understand the whole thing of not allowing recording. I'd call it greed, but even that has been proven wrong.