Deadheads Revolt

By Greg • Nov 30th, 2005 • Category: Interesting Finds, Music

The Grateful Dead folks are stirring the pot and messing with their hardcore fan base by restricting the downloads of their live performances on Archive.org. A NY Times article goes over the specifics in detail:


“ The band recently asked the operators of the popular Live Music Archive (archive.org) to make the concert recordings – a staple of Grateful Dead fandom – available only for listening online, the band’s spokesman, Dennis McNally, said yesterday. In the meantime, the files that previously had been freely downloaded were taken down from the site last week.“

I am not sure exactly what the good ol folks over at GD Merchandising are thinking exactly but its sort of taboo to be even attempting a move like this, THIS far in the development and evolution of the Grateful Dead fan base. Being a head myself, I adhere by all of their restrictions, but c’mon, the Archive.org recordings are priceless and a major source for some of the best shows ever played. The band is now selling shows on their main website and in short Archive poses unwelcomed competition. However, in making this decision they are unleashing a beast – David Gan’s sums up the reality of the situation:


“When they were making $50 million a year on the road, there wasn’t a lot of pressure to monetize their archives.” Now, however, it may be difficult to put the genie back in the bottle. While the move to revise the Live Music Archive may deal a blow to what many fans considered an organized library of material, “the idea that they could stop people from trading these files is absurd,” Mr. Gans said, adding: “It’s no longer under anyone’s control. People have gigabytes of this stuff.”

The fans have created a petition to reverse the decision, you can check it out here.

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One Response »

  1. Helen on November 30th, 2005 at 8:05 pm:

    Finally! Phil makes a statement. Gotta’ love that guy!
    Peace…................

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