November 18th
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Bruce Springsteen will begin selling official bootlegs of some of his most legendary concerts. The singer has launched an online store with recordings from more than 30 recent gigs, with plans to dig much deeper into his 40-year career.

live.brucespringsteen.net debuts with high-resolution recordings from all of Springsteen’s 2014 tour dates, including a New Zealand gig where he performed the entirety of Born to Run.

Although these concerts were previously available through a different official online shop, they are now for sale in a much wider array of formats, including CD sets. Springsteen has also shared a recording of the E Street Band’s 8 March 2012 concert at New York’s Apollo theatre . It is the first of a series of releases from Springsteen’s archives.

“We know, of course, that fans want to dig deep [into concert archives],” Brad Serling, whose company oversees the Live project, told the Springsteen site Backstreets. “[But] what I’ve found with any actively touring artist, big or small, is that recent always trumps older in the artist’s mind. There’s an afterglow of big moments in the near-rear-view mirror that are more meaningful to them than the glories of the distant past.”

Although the 2012 Apollo show is far from fans’ most sought-after release, Springsteen and Serling’s team are planning to showcase many earlier shows, including several from between 1973 and 1978. “It’s very exciting to think about the different eras that will be covered,” Serling said. “And what’s really interesting is where the tapes are coming from. What’s in the vault, what isn’t. Not all of it is in their archives, so they are sourcing material now.”

Springsteen was inspired by “looking at YouTube and seeing fan-generated content from his recent shows,” Serling continued. “He was like, ‘We can do better than that.’” Springsteen’s archivists are now poring over everything from soundboard recordings to radio broadcasts, and they could even use fan recordings. “Nothing’s off the table,” Serling said.

Live Bruce Springsteen is modelled on similar schemes that Serling has overseen for Phish and the Grateful Dead. Besides these recent High Hopes tour-dates, Springsteen has only officially released four live albums, consisting of shows from 1992, 2000, 2006, and a 1975-1985 retrospective.

Great news! Although, Springsteen is one of, if not THE MOST, bootlegged artist in history. And he has never cared about shutting down any bootlegger, ever. So any show you can think of, you can get.

What will make this successful is if The Boss has high-quality audio and video of legendary shows for which the bootlegs are of less-than-soundboard quality.

So far all I've seen on The Boss's sites are audio files. I'm not all that interested in buying the 2914 Houston show we were at on audio, but I'd buy the video in a heartbeat.

Of course it is a great idea, plus he is the owner of it all, Pearl Jam have been doing this for ages, some do it for a few shows, Pearl Jam does it sometimes for every show. Simple Minds did this also for a select few shows, Coldplay on occasion, u2 released a fan club only disc, its pretty much a no brainer that your fans loyal ones are the ones that made you and will keep making you, some artists havent got the memo on this though.

lastdecember said:

some artists havent got the memo on this though.

Soul and blues shows generally weren't recorded and it was even more rare for them to be filmed, especially in the "chitlin' circuit" days. Back in the early 1960s, James Brown paid his own money to record a concert when his label refused to do it. Many of the ones that were filmed have never been issued to video like Harlem Cultural Festival. Others were lost or not well preserved like the rock star equivalents. Wattstax was long believed to be lost, but someone happened to find the footage in unlabled boxes in an office.

[Edited 11/18/14 15:57pm]

MickyDolenz said:

lastdecember said:

some artists havent got the memo on this though.

Soul and blues shows generally weren't recorded and it was even more rare for them to be filmed, especially in the "chitlin' circuit" days. Back in the early 1960s, James Brown paid his own money to record a concert when his label refused to do it. Many of the ones that were filmed have never been issued to video like Harlem Cultural Festival. Others were lost or not well preserved like the rock star equivalents. Wattstax was long believed to be lost, but someone happened to find the footage in unlabled boxes in an office.

[Edited 11/18/14 15:57pm]

Im talking more in this era for artists because of sound quality even Beatle stuff and Stones stuff for those days sounds like crap and were not recorded like shows are now. If Springsteen were out in the 60's then i doubt you'd see this, there are many you will never see.

lastdecember said:

Im talking more in this era for artists because of sound quality even Beatle stuff and Stones stuff for those days sounds like crap and were not recorded like shows are now. If Springsteen were out in the 60's then i doubt you'd see this, there are many you will never see.

There are many TV specials/variety shows that have never been released to video like TCB (Temptations & Supremes) and others by Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago (In The Rockies), Natalie Cole, Jose Feliciano, etc. The TV networks probably owns this stuff and I think they could put the footage on their sites to watch. Some are on Youtube/Daily Motion, but are either not complete or very poor quality. Like 10th generation videotape. It's unlikely they will be released on video anyway.

Springsteen is satisfying his core audience's craving for high-quality concert bootlegs. This is a smart, fan-friendly move.

lastdecember said:

Of course it is a great idea, plus he is the owner of it all, Pearl Jam have been doing this for ages, some do it for a few shows, Pearl Jam does it sometimes for every show. Simple Minds did this also for a select few shows, Coldplay on occasion, u2 released a fan club only disc, its pretty much a no brainer that your fans loyal ones are the ones that made you and will keep making you, some artists havent got the memo on this though.

Fleetwood Mac along with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have an official concert download site as well:

http://lvps87-230-78-245.dedicated.hosteurope.de/

By the way, I always felt that this is something that Prince should have been doing for years now!!

Prince ought to adopt this platform now. This business model would solve many of his problems with bootleggers.

PurpleSpirit319 said:

By the way, I always felt that this is something that Prince should have been doing for years now!!

I wish! I have the 2012 Springstten concert I went to thanks to fans freely talking and posting on official websites...

Identity said:

Prince ought to adopt this platform now. This business model would solve many of his problems with bootleggers.

Again there are many things that we want prince to do and follow, but he isnt going to do this, he occasionally dabbles in it, I remember people and myself going apeshit in 1997 when he put out that 2 track cassette live from NYC, this could easily be done at this point by him. Alot of his stuff is out there in soundboard quality, so someone recorded shows, and I dont doubt he somehow was getting money off this stuff then, alot of artists were leaking to the bootleggers. Back in the 90's when i use get alot of "the boots" on VHS this guy told me that prince had people getting recordings for him, he was well aware of it then.

RodeoSchro said:

Great news! Although, Springsteen is one of, if not THE MOST, bootlegged artist in history. And he has never cared about shutting down any bootlegger, ever.

Well, he did sue the UK label that tried to put out a CD of his pre-record label demos at the end of the '90s. I also recall reading that he took a bootlegger to court in the late-'70s or early-'80s. But, yeah - he's let concert bootlegs be since that time. He even allows SiriusXM to play all the bootlegged material (live and studio) they want on his "E Street Radio" channel.

Springsteen adds 1978 Cleveland concert to download site

lastdecember said:

Of course it is a great idea, plus he is the owner of it all, Pearl Jam have been doing this for ages, some do it for a few shows, Pearl Jam does it sometimes for every show. Simple Minds did this also for a select few shows, Coldplay on occasion, u2 released a fan club only disc, its pretty much a no brainer that your fans loyal ones are the ones that made you and will keep making you, some artists havent got the memo on this though.

Yeah. Also Metallica has every show since 2004 available on their website. And Peter Gabriel released almost every show since the "Growing up" tour on CD. It's pretty costly though, if you're a completist.

ill bet prince says he has new music and doesnt need to do this..