Bootleg concert recordings

Video or audio. What do you think ... legal or illegal? OK to do/buy or not so much? Opinions are fine, but I'd sure like to hear what those with ties to the industry have to say.

Both are illegal without permission from the copyright holder.

Illegal technically..but lots of good ones out there...i own several ...there are a few bands out there who don't care and a few who encourage it...the industry hates them but the fans love them and there are plenty for sale..the industry and most musicians know they cant stop them..i recently went to a show where everyone was recording and photographing everything with phones and pads and no one made an effort to stop it...

They are illegal unless the artist gives permission. I think Grateful Dead never cared, which is why there's so many of theirs out there.

I personally have only 2 or 3. Never been a fan as the audio usually isn't that great. The few I have are more historical than anything.

I might have one or two  bootlegs lying around, but in all honesty they never excited me all that much.  The audio quality is usually rather poor, and while I like attending live shows I would actually rather listen to the studio recordings over nearly all live recordings.

So what exactly is a bootleg? I think it is generally accepted that something I record at a concert, to either audio or video, would be a bootleg. But what about something professionally recorded, but not by the band?

www.maximumsound.org is a site that offers concert DVDs, and some of what they offer is, to me, clearly bootleg copies.  For example, the description for "Journey live in Washington DC 7-23-03" states, "Excellent quality FAN-PRODUCED audience recording of ..."  As this was produced by someone with their video recorder or cellphone, probably discreetly, it is no doubt a bootleg and not something I would buy. However, the description for "Journey live Winterland Ballroom 1974" states, "Excellent quality proshot broadcast recording of Journey..."  Would you consider this a bootleg? After all, it was recorded with the band's knowledge and consent, and meant for broadcast purposes. Sure, someone somewhere owns the copyright (probably a TV network), so I am sure it's duplication is somewhere left of the "legal" line, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


The second one above, by the way, is the one I ordered from this site because it is pre-Perry, something any die-hard Journey fan would kill for!   I also have "Live in Osaka, 1980", which is from the Departure tour -- essentially a video version of the Captured album, and it, too, is a pro shot video originally meant for broadcast in Japan.

I always got the impression that the original "bootlegs" where fan recorded concerts that people typically traded with each other illegally (some of these were even pressed to vinyl).  Seems that in the last 30 years the term "bootleg" has come to describe just about any live recording that isn't released by a major label (regardless of if it is legal or not).  Even some bands (such as Rez) have embraced the "bootleg" term and released live albums that are for sale legally with the term "bootleg" in the description.
The term bootleg always makes me think of liquor smugglers trying to bootleg illegal whiskey or gin across the boarder from Canada into the U.S. during prohibition.

Rez's Live: Bootleg title is just playing into that a lot of live recordings are bootlegs.  Just like Judah naming their demo "basement tape" One Step from the Basement.

Bootlegging is reproducing, carrying and/or selling illegal merchandise.  It gets its name from people hiding liquor bottles in the leg of their boot.

If you have permission to record and distribute a live recording, it is not illegal and therefore, not a bootleg copy but rather just a bad recording.

I look at it this way:  if you love a band so much that you would buy bootlegs, you probably own their studio releases too so why not?  It's not like you can spend more money on their music than you already have.

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I look at it this way:  if you love a band so much that you would buy bootlegs, you probably own their studio releases too so why not?  It's not like you can spend more money on their music than you already have.

right on DF...I agree... If you find one that says recorded from a soundboard it will probably be pretty good...