Greg Lake’s rant against bootlegs and piracy.

january4mn wrote: I respect Greg's wishes. Don't bootleg his shows! Whether or not we think it's a smart  thing to do or not , or whether you think he's being a mean bugger or not is not the point. HE deserves the final say, it's HIS music and HIS performance after all. He's also one of the greats of progrock, deserves some respect after all he's done and where would prog be without him? Other bands are ok with live bootlegs, HE isn't. Nuff said.   I'd also like to mention that when someone lends somebody some CDs and their friends make copies, that DOES rob the artist of a few potential album sales. If everyone does this with maybe, 2 friends (that actually like prog) each and the friends do not end up buying the album, it chops record sales by two thirds.   I think the reason Greg Lake, and many other artists are "paranoid" as you say, is that all artists are facing a decline in record sales by about two thirds or more. Obviously sites from Russia or wherever that sell bootlegged albums are much worse, but everything plays a part.   I think the right thing to say,  when you're going to lend someone a CD of a band is, "I can't stop you making a copy of this, but if you listen to it and like it, PLEASE consider buying that album, or even another album by the band. In other words, find some way to pay the artist. Otherwise many artists will continue to be in the poorhouse and eventually won't be able to make any more albums, or will give up in disgust as Martin Orford did, and what a loss that was.

Conor Fynes wrote: Seems like a slap in the face to his fans for him to be that embittered towards him. People are more likely to buy his stuff if he doesn't seem like such a dick...

 

Steven in Atlanta wrote:   ... Lake's similarly aged industry colleagues Weir, Lesh & Co. had it figured out some time ago, and are none the worse for wear - and I'll bet the GD legend actually grew because of it!

richardh wrote: All I deduce from this is that someone is not as well off as he used to be.   btw sheer genius Padraic

What's that got to do with it? The point is his product is being stolen. Why does he have to live in the 2010 world? And do people need to attend every ELP concert? If ELP are on you tube if gives them more exposure? Give me a break. It's ridiculous. People need to see every concert of ELP? For what?

Vibrationbaby wrote: I am on Greg's side. I am sick of all this new technology hijacking talent.

Me too! It's complete garbage. Everything is for free? Practice for 15 hours a day for many years, write beautiful music, tour with the best,.....suffer as every human being does on a regular job or career however, it's all suddenly free? I know the record companies were harsh in the 70's and 80's but, depriving the musician of making a living? How about bringing in lawyers from professional law firms (not public defenders)  and have them do it for free? What? People think just because it's music, it makes the reality different? No it does not. This is complete garbage.

I am sorry, these are concert BOOTLEGS he's talking about. Some of these so-called 'bootlegs' in question are just extremely poor cellphone recordings and they are not a substitute for a good live recording as precious little can be heard amid all the noise and clutter and anybody who thinks THOSE will deprive them of album sale revenues must be paranoid beyond belief.  His points on downloading are valid but he's lumping both the things together.  Now, if somebody brought sophisticated recording equipment in and made a clean and marketable recording or simply made illegal CD copies of an official live recording, that's indeed not on.  I doubt with the amount of frisking that happens at concerts, certainly those of bands as big as ELP, the former can be done anymore.  As for good bootlegs made maybe in the 70s of shows ELP have released being shared with listeners, the armadillo is free to have a word with you.  

I wish this kind of video recording had been around during the Gabriel era of Genesis :/

Tapfret wrote: Perhaps they should only perform "In the Hot Seat" in its entirety from now on when they play live. That should surely end this bootlegging problem.

TODDLER wrote: richardh wrote: All I deduce from this is that someone is not as well off as he used to be.   btw sheer genius Padraic What's that got to do with it? The point is his product is being stolen. Why does he have to live in the 2010 world? And do people need to attend every ELP concert? If ELP are on you tube if gives them more exposure? Give me a break. It's ridiculous. People need to see every concert of ELP? For what?

40footwolf wrote: Have you noticed that all of the people who posts these diatribes-the Gene Simmonses and Greg Lakes of the world-are all shambling husks of their former selves, both as people and as musicians? This strikes me as another case of one of these old lions just not understanding how the modern world works. Does Greg sincerely think that if people see a crap quality video of an ELP show on Youtube that'll prevent them from going to see them live? If so he has no right to be calling anyone "intellectually challenged", since he has no idea how the consumer mind functions.