Concert recording distribution in 2008+
Posted: October 5, 2008 11:42 pm
Recently, I've been hunting down old concert recordings. As I searched through years of conversation here on BuffettNews.com, it occurred to me that the internet technology of today could help put all of the many past recordings into Parrothead's hands and ears a little more quickly and more easily.
For those who like their music electronically
There have been a number of sites (mainly FTP) over the years making it easy for those who know how to connect to FTP sites and directly download music to their computers. The Jokelben and SpoonerShow and servebeer and Frozentundra and Jambacash sites have all tried to be a central repository of the Jimmy music we love. But the people running the sites and paying for webserver space come and go. And so do the sites come and go.
One of the great assets that BuffettNews.com has is the Set List and Song Database. Why? Because it is a single, authoritative place for that information. Wouldn't it be great if there were a single, authoritative place for Jimmy's recordings? Wouldn't it be great if you could not only search BN.com for a lyric or song or concert, but then follow that search result to the file(s) that you could download right to your MP3 player?
To some degree, a Parrothead among us, SunLover, has arisen to do much of this. SunLover has an obvious interest in the music, talent in audio recording and mixing, and technology skills to upload and host all of this great music. In the past year or so, the availability of recent concerts from SunLover's awesome posts and live links has greatly simplified satisfying my appetite for Jimmy's live music (and simplified my life to just a few song download clicks over wrestling with Radio Margaritaville recording
).
What could this look like?
There could be a new area called 'Concert Vault' or 'Recording Vault' or 'Buffett Music' or hold-a-contest-for-the-new-music-area-name. It could work like the News area of BN.com where there were some (technically inclined?) moderators who could screen uploads from those wanting to add to the vault. They could check for recording quality, eliminate duplicate shows, reject commercially available recordings, etc. Approved recordings could be posted in a database and cross-linked to the Set List and/or Song Database area. BN.com has longevity. New moderators with interest/skills could come and go. This would prevent the 'FTP sites come and go' problem. There would likely be the issue of cost. Web hosting space isn't free. I've never known how the many gigabytes of BN.com's content are paid for, but I know someone....somewhere....has to ultimately foot the bill. And music recordings aren't small.
How about those of us who aren't computer whiz kids?
For those who like their music on CDs
Looking over the many vine threads, the major problem is in tracking. Who started things? Where in the list are the master CDs? How do I contact who's next? Which version of the list is CURRENT? Using a discussion forum to track this can be confusing.
The above 'concert vault' could also have a vine capability to distribute the music via CDs and snail mail. A wiki (like Wikipedia) could be used to more effectively keep track of the vine list, contact information, current CD holder, etc. As PHPbb (the software behind the BN.com Forum) is readily available, so too are many are many wiki software programs (MediaWiki, Twiki, PMWiki, Dokuwiki). A wiki page per recording could be created for those interested in distributing by vine. Each page could started by someone interested in the recording and others would add to it. The same information that is tracked in the vine lists would be required (BN.com name, email/PM contact info, rec'd date, sent date). It would be a single list that everyone could update. When you get the CDs, you change the page to record the date you got them. When you are done with the CDs, you change the page to record the date you sent them on. Anyone could come to the single page to see where the vine was without reading through page after page of updates and changes and sub-vines and.....
Ok, this got a little more long-winded than the original idea rolling around in my head. What does anyone else think?
For those who like their music electronically
There have been a number of sites (mainly FTP) over the years making it easy for those who know how to connect to FTP sites and directly download music to their computers. The Jokelben and SpoonerShow and servebeer and Frozentundra and Jambacash sites have all tried to be a central repository of the Jimmy music we love. But the people running the sites and paying for webserver space come and go. And so do the sites come and go.
One of the great assets that BuffettNews.com has is the Set List and Song Database. Why? Because it is a single, authoritative place for that information. Wouldn't it be great if there were a single, authoritative place for Jimmy's recordings? Wouldn't it be great if you could not only search BN.com for a lyric or song or concert, but then follow that search result to the file(s) that you could download right to your MP3 player?
To some degree, a Parrothead among us, SunLover, has arisen to do much of this. SunLover has an obvious interest in the music, talent in audio recording and mixing, and technology skills to upload and host all of this great music. In the past year or so, the availability of recent concerts from SunLover's awesome posts and live links has greatly simplified satisfying my appetite for Jimmy's live music (and simplified my life to just a few song download clicks over wrestling with Radio Margaritaville recording
).What could this look like?
There could be a new area called 'Concert Vault' or 'Recording Vault' or 'Buffett Music' or hold-a-contest-for-the-new-music-area-name. It could work like the News area of BN.com where there were some (technically inclined?) moderators who could screen uploads from those wanting to add to the vault. They could check for recording quality, eliminate duplicate shows, reject commercially available recordings, etc. Approved recordings could be posted in a database and cross-linked to the Set List and/or Song Database area. BN.com has longevity. New moderators with interest/skills could come and go. This would prevent the 'FTP sites come and go' problem. There would likely be the issue of cost. Web hosting space isn't free. I've never known how the many gigabytes of BN.com's content are paid for, but I know someone....somewhere....has to ultimately foot the bill. And music recordings aren't small.
How about those of us who aren't computer whiz kids?
For those who like their music on CDs
Looking over the many vine threads, the major problem is in tracking. Who started things? Where in the list are the master CDs? How do I contact who's next? Which version of the list is CURRENT? Using a discussion forum to track this can be confusing.
The above 'concert vault' could also have a vine capability to distribute the music via CDs and snail mail. A wiki (like Wikipedia) could be used to more effectively keep track of the vine list, contact information, current CD holder, etc. As PHPbb (the software behind the BN.com Forum) is readily available, so too are many are many wiki software programs (MediaWiki, Twiki, PMWiki, Dokuwiki). A wiki page per recording could be created for those interested in distributing by vine. Each page could started by someone interested in the recording and others would add to it. The same information that is tracked in the vine lists would be required (BN.com name, email/PM contact info, rec'd date, sent date). It would be a single list that everyone could update. When you get the CDs, you change the page to record the date you got them. When you are done with the CDs, you change the page to record the date you sent them on. Anyone could come to the single page to see where the vine was without reading through page after page of updates and changes and sub-vines and.....
Ok, this got a little more long-winded than the original idea rolling around in my head. What does anyone else think?
