Bootlegs are a
perennial bone of contention in the music industry and have been since the
first significant one - The Great White Wonder, Bob Dylan's legendary,
unreleased basement tapes from Big Pink, recorded during his year's
sabbatical following a motorbike accident - appeared in 1960. Some record
companies and artists consider them artistic theft since all profits from
their sale go into the pockets of the
bootleggers and
none go to the artists. There is also the issue of quality: most
bootlegs are either poorly recorded live tapes or else studio outtakes; by
definition sub-standard sonically or artistically, or both.
The opposing
argument is that bootlegs comprise material that the artist would never
officially release anyway, so they are not being robbed of royalties in the
real sense. As for the quality: the fans know the material is usually
poor, but don't particularly care, they just want everything they can lay
their hands on by their favorite act. And to suggest that bootlegs might
somehow reduce sales of official material is absurd since those fans keen
enough to acquire bootlegs will almost certainly already own every official
release.
