Bootlegs Archives - Alan Cross' A Journal of Musical Things

How many live albums does Pearl Jam have now? We’ve officially lost count.

Pearl Jam’s egalitarian attitudes have always extended to allowing fans to record their gigs. They’ve also been very generous with

Over the weekend, 50 unreleased Rolling Stones songs stretching back over almost 60 years appeared online. No one seems to

You know that things are weird when my visit to Costoco revealed that my local store totally out of antiseptic

Illegally made recordings are as old as recorded music itself. In 1901, Lionel Mapleson, the librarian at the Metropolitan Opera

I understand why people back into parking spaces at the mall, but when it’s crowded and busy during the holiday

Unauthorized sharing of songs goes back further than Napster. Much further. As proof, here’s a short film Neil Young shot

I confess: I used to buy a lot of bootleg CDs. And I mean a lot. They ran the gamut:

It was on this day in 1963 that the first-ever push-button telephone went into service. And now, some music news…

The first known example of a successful bootleg was an unauthorized Bob Dylan collection of–ahem–misplaced tracks called Great White Wonder

[For some reason, I’ve recently been getting a lot of people asking about the old illicit Soviet method or distributing

Being your Authentic Self – Richard Crouse in conversation with TBP Podcast EP 035 July 2, 2021
You would be given a free pass if you forgot that before the rise of the social media influencer there were already pundits and personalities on TV, radio and print. There’s just been that much exponential change in the media business over the last 15 years. Yet today, those who were formerly the audience are […]
Mark Silver
The Business of Radio – Elliott Hurst in conversation with TBP Podcast EP 034 June 21, 2021
The commercialization of streaming audio is not a new phenomenon. Going back 100 years, it was simply known by another name, broadcasting. With the launch, rise and now transition to digital and apps, the business models of audio-preneurs have generally been the same, mostly because of the challenge of measurement, a problem audio’s cousin television […]
Mark Silver
The Custodian of Toronto Sports – Richard Peddie in conversation with TBP Podcast EP 033 May 27, 2021
Over a 20+ year span, as the Toronto pro sports scene evolved from older venues and stands filled with blue and white (Leafs, Blue Jays, Argonauts) to a more intense red (Raptors, TFC), and grand coliseums that define the city’s skyline, there is one sports executive in particular who ownership looked to. We’re of course […]
Mark Silver