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Sound Check: A Web site that shares the riches: Wolfgang's Vault brings vintage sounds to your desktop ? legally
(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 26--On Tuesday, the Man came knocking. And when the Man comes knocking, you know you're in for it. The jig is up.
In what can only be described as a bit of digital-age post-modern surrealism, police descended on a flat in Middleborough, outside of London, to shut down what the Telegraph called "one of the world's biggest illegal music file-sharing Web sites."
You'd think a sting of this magnitude -- which the Guardian reported as having been in the making for two years -- would unearth a lab of Dr. Evil-esque proportions, a James Bond-styled lair of iniquity.
Instead, the "Bobbys" grabbed a 24-year-old IT worker who ran a subscription-based file-sharing operation called, hilariously, Oink, from a desktop computer in his rather humble flat.
Pardon me for thinking this is funny for everyone but the dude himself, who faces some serious charges on conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law. (He's up the Internet creek with nary a hard drive for a paddle, fo' sho'.) To paraphrase a columnist protesting the late-'60s bust of a private party at Keith Richards' house, who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? Or, if English colloquialisms aren't your thing, is it overwhelming to use a crane to crush a fly? (Hats off to Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne for that one.)
The Telegraph quotes a Detective Sgt. Tony Keogh, who led the sting, as claiming this "infringement of copyright law . . . causes immeasurable loss to record companies." Awww. I guess eating humble pie after years of caviar can be a bit offputting. Sniffle.
Anyway, poking fun at the crumbling record industry makes for an awfully good time, but let's leave it, for now. My concern is not with music biz execs wondering what they're going to do from now until they decide to cash in their (soon to be worthless) stock options. My concern is with you, oh (relatively) innocent partaker in the great rock 'n' roll swindle that is the contemporary digital downloading landscape.
Let's be honest. You've been a bit naughty, haven't you? Visited an illegal file-sharing site from time to time, eh, Little Alex? Don't try to tell me that the words "bit" and "torrent" fail to send a rush of blood to your extremities and a tingle down your neck. Considered yourself too special to wait for the legal release date of that Wilco album, didn't you? Oh, dear.
Not to worry, though. We'll have you cured in no time.
Far be it from me to tell you what to do. And lobbying for some particular Web site is not really my gig of choice, either. I'm of the belief that things were pretty much fine before, back when an artist released a record, and you went to the store and bought it -- or not -- on the day it was released. The waiting, the anticipation, the fetishizing -- heck, it's half the fun. I'm sick of staring at my computer screen. It's starting to stare back, and that makes me a bit uneasy-queasy.
So, go about your business, "as you were," and all of that. But consider checking out my favorite legal site for listening to rare concerts in their entirety.
Wolfgang's Vault is the real stuff. Come for a visit, ( w w w .concerts.wolfgangsvault. com), and you'll want to stay a while.
Named for the late, great concert promoter and venue owner Bill Graham -- born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin, but known by this Anglicized moniker after relocating to San Francisco -- Wolfgang's Vault began its life in 2003 as a repository for the tapes of shows Graham promoted at his Fillmore East and Winterland concert halls between 1965 and the late '80s. The idea was to clean these tapes up, transfer them to a digital format, and offer them as free digital streams -- meaning, you can listen any time you like, as often as you like, for no charge. If you want to download your own copy, though, you've got to pay. Seems reasonable to me.
In 2006, the Wolfgang's Vault folks grabbed the rights to the classic radio series the King Biscuit Flower Hour, which, kids, was a "weekly syndicated radio show" that broadcast concerts, usually on Sunday nights, in their entirety. Back in the album era, prehistoric man would gather around this "radio" and listen as the artists of the day dropped some blood on the stage. Many cavemen would hit "record" and "play" simultaneously (!), in order to "bootleg" these concerts on a primitive item known as a "tape recorder" which employed something predigital man christened "magnetic tape." Crazy, isn't it?
By this point, Wolfgang's Vault overfloweth. And while once you could only listen, now you can download from what is simply a vast catalog of fantastic concerts from artists such as Blondie, the Allman Brothers, Traffic, James Taylor and the Who. OK, so you can't grab the Alter Bridge or Chiodos record for free, prior to its release. (Not at Wolfgang's Vault, anyway.) But man, this "old stuff" sounds fantastic. And it's modern, believe me. The past becomes the future. So it's useful to be familiar with it.
Be careful out there, musicloving rider of the file-sharing wave. It's gonna get worse before it gets better. I'd hate for you to hear that knock on your door, quite ugly one morning.--
jmiers@buffnews.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
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