Raiding the Vaults for the Fans

[David]

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


----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected]
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?