Raiding the Vaults for the Fans

[David]

I got home & checked my e-mail & found this:


----- Original Message -----
From: newsletter@rickieleejones.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 1:50 PM
Subject: New RLJ Official Bootleg

The following message is an announcement from the Rickie Lee Jones Web Site.

"Rare Space" is a collection of Rickie Lee Jones' rare performances from recently discovered tapes. Selected from various shows dating back to Rickie's first European tour in 1979 to performances as recent as 2001. "Rare Space" includes intimate and passionate renditions of "Rainbow Sleeves" and "Something Cool" along with exceptional versions of "Comin' Back To Me," "The Horses," and "A Lucky Guy". This compilation is a listening experience that you will not want to miss.

My point really isn't to pitch Rickie Lee Jones to anyone here, but to use her as one example of how some rock stars are truly in tune with their serious fans. We already mentioned that great pack of live CDs that Pearl Jam released a few years ago, & this Rickie Lee Jones item is just another example from a growing number of bands who understand what their fans want to hear & are willing to sell it to them.

Get a load of the subject line in the e-mail, too. It took Jones about six months to get totally hip to the fact that her fans were trading bootlegs. In no time at all, she was on it---not to punish her fans but to take advantage (as the copyright holder of her material) of that demand & use it to her benefit. For the past year or two, she has been packaging bootleg CDs & unreleased live material from the RLJ vaults & selling them online. The CDs run from $13.95 to about $20. The site is up to its 11th bootleg CD offered for legitimate sale (you can check it all out at www.greatbigisland.com/rickie_sales.htm). She also posts MP3s of a bunch of other live shows, demos, unreleased tracks, etc., on the same site for 75 cents per file. Her fans are in heaven.

Again, I'm not trying to push RLJ specifically. I'm just trying to show that it's an artist's conscious decision either to pull material from the vaults for the fans or not to do so, & to provide an example of artists out there who have decided to do so. They're leading the way, & poor Fleetwood Mac is bringing up the rear. Or are they even part of the caravan?

[estranged4life]

would be a GREAT idea for Fleetwood Mac to try to do...And I would definitely purchase cd's IF they ever decided to try a deal like this...Thanks David, Brian J.

[wetcamelfood]

I sure HOPE something like this happens someday regarding the FM unreleased stuff but at best, the way things have been going lately anyways, the Knight (and his lurkers here) will probably only do it either through mickfleetwood.com and/or fleetwoodmac.com but they'll only sell to club members (and charge heaven only knows what for them and the new administration fees that would need to be added on to the current fees for membership as that would most likely come along with the addition of such "club perks" to "let them do such a nice caring thing to/for their fans") though, with the money supossedly going to "favorite charities"!

Not to give them any ideas but knowing they must look around here, it was bound to come in to someone's head so I thought I'd get it out and over with so hopefully they won't catch this one. A nice idea though, and I hope it does happen THE WAY THAT RICKIE LEE is dealing with it or smething similar and more genuine and not smelling like "money greed". "Cashing in" on it like RLJ is doing is fine but not setting up a foreclosure center for fans to get the stuff they want.

John

[macfan 57]

I think this would be a terrific idea. I'd buy something like this in a heartbeat. But, NOT through Mick's site or some silly fanclub kind of thing. I have a feeling that John is right about Mick's people. I hope this thread isn't giving them any ideas.

[CarneVaca]

David, this is a great example of how artists show appreciation for the fans. I have brought up other examples in the past. My other favorite band, Cracker, put up every single song on the web for its last album, though they made you work to find the songs by placing them in hidden corners of their sites with weird URLs. It became kind of a game and the hardcore fans had a blast trying to find the songs. More recently the band put up some 15 tracks for its next album, which will be a collection of redneck songs, mostly covers, about drinking, screwing, getting high and all kinds of debauchery. Some of the songs are unfinished, or alternate takes, so you have to get the records to get the final versions. When they released the last album, to further reward the fans, they included a second disc for free of a live recording. The first 35,000 people to buy the record got the bonus disc. Now you can get it through the web for $15.

On Mick's site, you'll see comments by posters justifying the orgy of greed that's going on over there. I've said it before: Fleetwood Mac is a corporate band, and as such, its primary goal is to make money. Do I think Lindsey is honest when he says he cares about the music above all else? I have no doubt he means it, but he certainly has made concessions before and he is certainly doing it now.

[strandinthewind]

I agree, FM is a huge corporate band. But, how else could they get an L.A. mansion to record in for over a year, the jets, the limo.'s, etc. I mean think about Atlantic in the end paying for SN to record TOSOTM in that huge and hugely expensive Dutch castle. Similarly, LB conceded and let GYOW be used to advertise for a car rental company. Maybe that was to pay for the production of the unreleased (at that time) GOS stuff and any advances associated with it. Certainly, that cost a fortune to produce. All in all, I can't say I would not do what "they" do given the amount of money involved. But, it just seems like given the amount of money they (artists, record company, etc.) make, "they" could reach out more to the fans instead of trying to squeeze every last nickle they can from them with absurd (my opinion) schemes

[Mike B]

Yeah, I don't understand why FM doesn't do something like this. To me, this would be easy money for them and an incredible treat to fans. It's win-freaking-win.

Record two or three rehearsal sessions, make some limited edition CDs, and sell them for $15-20 on the site....Crack open the vaults and dust off the Hollywood Bowl soundboard from the Tusk tour and sell it...Gather up the outtakes from Tusk, Mirage, and Tango and stick them on the official site as downloads. They've got a ton of options.

I don't know if there is another band out there with so many fans ready and willing to shell out huge amounts of money to them, if only the product were available.

(Not counting overpriced meet and greets, of course. )

Mike B.

[wetcamelfood]

Yeah, that's all fine and I'm sure we ALL want that and if they sell it "openly" to anyone then GREAT! BUT I just hope they don't make you join a (VERY expensive) "fan club" before they "allow" you to buy such stuff etc. so since those lurkers are around here somewhere... ssshhh.

John

[seteca]

Getting officially released versions of some of the Rumours and Tusk tour concerts would be AWESOME!!

Some of the bootleg recordings of those shows are SOO much better than the "Live" album. (I mean the shows themselves, not the recording quality.)