A debate on the subject has developed on this MJ board:

http://www.mjni.com/mb/pf...hichpage=1

I wondered - considering Prince is probably one of the most bootlegged artists of all time - what you orgers thought on this subject...

According to CFM (100.7 FM) Radio Station news, Michael Jackson has made numerous songs that may or may not be released on album. Michael booked a recording session at Capitol Studios, Hollywood. He recorded four songs titled:

What About Me
Breaking
Healing My Feelings
Dead or Alive

Apparently, a producer at CFM is very close friends with an employee at Capitol Records. She made copies of the tapes and sent them to him!
I find this very, very wrong. It is invading Michael's privacy! But then agin, I and many will get to here 30 seconds of two of the songs.
30 second takes from What About Me and Healing My Feelings will be played tommorow night on CFM, which is tonight!
I will record them and try to make them available for you to download.

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Thatd be cool!!! But, really, when you think about it, it is kinda like betraying MJ. I mean, after all, if he wanted us to hear the songs now, wouldnt he release them now? And yeah, we dont want these songs to be like Xscape...I say we should just be happy that MJ is making music now, and wait until they come out officially...Then, if the songs arent out with the next album, then I think itd be okay to get them any way you can.

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If u are a true fan u wont put these songs up on the net. MJ was upset when Xscape leaked and this is the last thing he needs right now. Dont be so selfish.

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All other artists get their songs leaked, and it doesn't halt them releasing the material. For example, Eminem's album "The Marshall Mathers LP" was leaked in its entirety, and it still sold very well.

The only people likely to hear a leak on the messageboards will be Michael Jackson fans, and if anyone is gonna buy the CD with it on, it'll be us.

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So you haven't heard Xscape then, Elusive?

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Of course i have. That's irrelevent as i wasn't the one doing the leaking and putting it up on the net in the first place - it was already there so it makes no difference to the situation if i have heard it or not. What i'm talking about is the single person who gets hold of the demos and releases them onto the net knowing MJ doesnt want them out there. If they are a fan of MJ's they should know he doesnt want then leaked.

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It's not irrelevant at all. If you're going by "what Michael wants" then you wouldn't have heard Xscape out of principle.

The fact of the matter is, 80% of what he records never gets released. IMO, Monkey Business is stronger than half of the Dangerous album, yet it was left on the cutting room floor... There is a strong possibility these songs also will never get released, and even if they do, we're all going to go out and buy multiple copies of the album anyway, so is there any real harm?

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Me hearing Xscape or not doesn't stop it from been out there. So what if i listened to it? I wasn't the one who leaked it and that's what im talking about.
All im saying is if MJ doesnt want those tracks out there i don't think fans should be leaking them. If they are already leaked by a non-fan (someone from the studio) then i have no problem with that. My whole statement evolved around a fan leaking the new songs and that if they are the only ones with them then they should respect MJ and not leak them.

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And if you were so concerned by "what Michael wanted" then you would've refrained from "joining in" and downloading Xscape. The fact remains he didn't want us to hear it and we all went against his wishes and heard it anyway.

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My point is getting missed. All i'm saying is that if i were listening to the radio station when the songs were leaked, i wouldnt go running to kazza or wherever with them. If someone else wants to do that as a fan then thats up to them. But i wouldn't because i think it would be wrong to personally spread them. Yes i will listen once they are out there because once they are out, it makes no diference to the situation if little old me listens to them or not. I just wouldn't personally spread them on the net in the first place.

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The way I see it, Michael gives us an album on average of once every 5-6 years. Most of what he records will never see the light of day.

These type of opportunity's should be ceased firmly with both hands.

I'd have no problem waiting if I knew it was going to be commercially released. I hate hearing snippets of songs anyway. But this is all we have, and all we're probably going to get for a very long time.

I've often thought about this - I don't download released and available material. But when it comes to after shows or other unavailable material, I can't really see how record companies lose out as it's the hardcore fans that will mostly download this stuff, and I;m sure the majority of us would pay for (and pay a lot for) proper released versions of some of this material. But if this material is NEVER released, why should I be deprived of ever hearing an after show again which I may have even attended?? I'd pay for it if I could, but I'm not even given the opportunity to do so. I guess the record companies argument may be that downloading will impact whether we would buy alternative releases...Well I still bought ONA Live! even though I have Tokyo downloaded. Release Tokyo on DVD, or Nighttown or Small Club and I'll buy the lot!!! And if Prince wants to guarantee happy subscribers to his fan club, he could sell this stuff song by song, or in whole, or give a rare aftershow to all members

I download it all. Who cares about the record companies? They sure as hell don't care about you. If they did, CD's would be 5.99 instead of 17.99.

Fuck em.

I have no moral issues at all.

I'll take the lot.

The moral arguement isn't about the record companies, it's about the artists wishes.

MattyJam said:

That's fair enough.

And i'm sure he would be pissed at me having some of his unreleased material. I've been pissed at him in the past too.

But i'm far more of a fan because of that unreleased material, and believe me he's ended up with far more of my $, not least in inflated concert ticket prices.

At the end of the day, i'm not losing any sleep over it. If i'm morally wrong then so be it.

If it's available to buy it's wrong.

If it's a concert performance from years ago that will never see the light of day officially, or an album that's out of print, i don't see a problem.

I much prefer to trade anyway.

MattyJam said:

I still don't care. It's not like I broke into his studio and stole the master tapes.

It's funny how all this bootleg hoo-hah started after the net made free mp3 trading possible. No one really cared in 1987.
[This message was edited Wed Feb 11 5:58:41 PST 2004 by the3rddoctor]

TheFrog said:

Me too, and it's not just downloading, before the net I gladly handed over £30 to Moonraker/Thunderball whenever they released a 3 CD set.

I was happy buying the bootlegs, now I'm happy downloading them.

the3rddoctor said:

Unfortunately it's the artists who suffer from downloading and the smaller indie record companies. Here in the UK all the small record stores are going out of business... The big majors are all making money from us all by the equipment we buy to listen to our downloads on... the end result is that smaller artists just won't be able to make anything from this and new talent won't develop. I don't care about the record companies either, but it isn't they who are suffering