I am a junkie. Like any junkie with a conscience and an awareness of his declining sense of self-respect, my addiction at various times causes personal shame and guilt, usually followed by the resolution that I will end the addiction. Beat this thing for good. Cut it off at the toke point. Or at least reduce it to a controllable level.
My addiction is live music. And dimeadozen is my drug. Like any narcotic, it has its benefits and horrible, horrible drawbacks. And despite what medical experts will tell you, it is every bit as addictive as any chemical drug.
In recent years, sites like dimeadozen and the standard protocol to support it, called “BitTorrent,” have grown in popularity among sick musos like myself. If it has not yet officially replaced trading as the primary means of live music dissemination, it very soon will. There are far too many advantages to this mode for it not to continue to increase in popularity. It will inevitably make trading a footnote in music collecting history (speaking of which, isn’t about time for an update to Clinton Heylin’s excellent Bootleg?) CD trading will eventually become a piece of nostalgia, much like vinyl records and mix tapes.
At its best, BitTorrent offers several advantages classic trading cannot challenge. BitTorrent is far faster than trading; instead of having to find someone willing to trade, retrieving the necessary CDs from whatever maximum-security vault the collector has designed, burning the CDs, packaging the CDs, and mailing the CDs, all BitTorrent takes is some free software and a PC with burning capabilities, and a user is free to download shows until he falls asleep or his spouse leaves him.
BitTorrent has also substantially increased the amount of live music in circulation. The effort of having to search individual trade lists to find a specific show is now practically non-existent. A simple post to a torrent message board will usually yield a generous collector willing to seed the show, regardless of how rare or hard to find a specific show might be. In this way, BitTorrent has made it remarkably easy to efficiently acquire new live music.
Deadbeat traders are also a non-factor with BitTorrent, and though they have been replaced by their evil twins in the form of deadbeat downloaders, dimeadozen enforces a minimum share ratio to combat this problem. Bad traders are the scourge of the trading community, and my guess is that their food supply is quickly drying up as BitTorrent’s popularity increases. And to the trader from the Bonin Islands who burned me for six CDs, I’m still waiting.
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Article comments
1 - Triniman
What are some other sites, in addition to dimeadozen?
2 - Mark Saleski
archive.org
3 - Craig Lyndall
My first experiences with bootlegs were buying them for 30 bucks a pop in the early to mid 90's at smaller record stores. I was so desperate to hear live pearl jam that I was paying 30 bucks a disc, or 50 bucks for a double once or twice a year.
Nice to know that a new generation of live music fans won't have to be smashed into submission because they want to be uber-fans.
4 - Anna Creech
bt.etree.org is another great place to find live music.
My live music collection has exploded as a result of bit torrent. I have a backlog of about fifty or so shows to listen to, and I've pretty much stopped downloading everything that looks interesting just because it will take me a while to get around to listening to it all. There was something good about the delay involved in trading...
5 - Mat Brewster
I wrote a similararticle a few months ago. Though I download constantly, I do miss the relationships that you could build via the snail mail trading systems.
Actually my first thought when I read this article was, "I wonder what his list looks like."
When I get the trade munchies I usually go to philzone.org. They've got an ever evolving vine list to suit just about any need.
6 - Mat Brewster
Sorry, the article mentioned can be read here.
7 - Eric
Hope it's not poor behavior to respond to your own article, but to Mat, who asked about my list: it's at phishhook under user name nerosneptune.
And yes, as you can see, it's a serious illness I have.
Eric
8 - Snarkattack
I shouldn't have read this, it's fuelling an addiction just waiting to happen.
Eric - I think it's fine to put comments in your own article, especially when it's to communicate to someone's comment, or answer a question. :)
9 - QRDeNameland
As a noob that only became involved in boot trading with the advent of BitTorrent, I think there is an aspect to this line of thought that wasn't covered.
A large part of what I think the "old school" traders' lament is that, much like what has happened to the commercial recording industry post-Napster, the inherent value of these recordings has become greatly devalued by their sheer availability.
When I first started my DaD addiction a little over two years ago, it was like stumbling into a gold mine. Now, even though I still find some real gems on a regular basis, the luster of the booty just isn't what it used to be. Scarcity does create value.
Still, thanks for the blog article, interesting reading.
10 - Luke
I thought I"d comment on this. I have been a bootleg trader since 1996. Sites like jamtothis and dimeadozen and zomb torrent have been a blessing, but I still do snail mail trading! My ISP allows me to download 20 gig per month off peak (12am - 8am each night) and 20 gig per month on peak (every other time). Most of the downloading is down on peak, so this means I can usually only dl 20 gig a month, which amounts to around 5 DVD shows. When I"m over the limit the speed is reduced. It can be seen here that snail mail trading is much better here as there is no limit, I can trade for 20 shows via the mail in one go, whereas online I cang only download around 5 shows per month. The other aspect is the ratio. Often I will decide not to download something as it will screw up my ratio, whereas with mail trading there is no worries here, provided someone wants somethning of mine. This ratio problem is not a large problem however, as i can just seed old shows or upload somethning of mine to boost my ratio. This is an advantage of torrent sites. With snail mail trading there is often the problem of not having anything a trader wants so you can't trader with them. With bootleg torrent sites however someone is bound to be interested in something you have!!
Another possible problem with torrent sites is the number of incomplete shows due to them having released material. I understand there is a policy on released material but this is causing incomplete shows to be circulated when the complete shows do exist!
I agree about the discussion aspect. Occasionally on bootleg torrent sites there are discussions on bands but not as detailed as the old days where they would have deatiled discussions on band sites regarding their bootlegs.
These torrent sites do have their advantages. I love it how I can get a show almost instantanously rather than having to wait for it to arrive in the mail.
So there you have it! I"d say my main problem with torrent sites is my download limit (and my ISP said I can't upgrade it cause of where I live) . Therefore I like to do a mix of both online and mail trading.
Luke
11 - Matt R
I started trading around 1988 when I was first turned on to the Dead. When I got my first set of shows in my hand, I was blessed. I still remember how some people I knew who in college taped dead shows wouldn't even talk to me, as I was "undeserving". So it was always difficult to find new bootlegs. And if you let someone borrow tapes to copy- there were good odds that you'd never see them again. So yes- we should creat a BLA (boot-legger anonymous and I'll start my own chapter- I love bittorent and every time I score a great show- or I find the plethora of YMSB shows every time they tour (in matrix) I happily feed my addiction!!!!!
12 - Deltoid
I agree that the dialog between collectors is different, and that far more emphasis is placed upon discussion of facts and fiction about the music, sources, etc. But this newer wrinkle in the method is far more accessible, whereas by mail, you really needed to work it. The love of and passion for the music and keeping it alive/available is what has always driven trading. As long as that is there, it won't really matter how it is done. And the modern deadbeat? Far less expensive, and as easily stopped as an unwanted web page ad.