Wolfgang's Vault

Last month I happened upon Wolfgang's Vault . It's a site set up buy Bill Sagan who purchased the late Bill Graham's archive of concert recordings and memorabilia. He's selling this memorabilia (posters, t-shirts, etc...) while streaming some great concerts that Graham promoted and recorded over the years, mostly at the Fillmores and Winterland. Of course, none of this is without objection. A number of bands (The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, you know, some minor players) are questioning the legality of the whole operation:

http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/7837.html

I'm not a lawyer so I can't predict where the legal chips will fall but I am a musician and I understand a musicians right and desire to control their music. On the other hand, I'm also a fan with an insatiable desire to hear music. I have to believe these concert streams will only generate further interest in a band's back catalog. For bands like Flock of Seagulls or ABC it has to be a boon to their catalog sales. I became a big fan of The Band in recent years and listening to a couple of their concerts on the site has me wanting to dig even further into their catalog. Maybe they can work out a deal where they pay a fee (like a percentage of the sales of the memorabilia) to the artists to keep the streams up.

BTW-If you haven't seen The Band's farewell concert "The Last Waltz" filmed by Martin Scorsese, what are you waiting for? Brilliant!

Anyway, you may want to check out Wolfgang's Vault while it lasts.

Keep Listening,

Guy