There are hundreds of Breakfast shows for free download.
Live As Is show was previously released as a free download.
How come so many shows were offered for free?
All the free downloads could have generated thousands of dollars for the band if they were sold.
Years & years of shows were offered for free.
Every few years a live show is picked to try & sell. Sales are few, the band goes in debt.
Charge for downloads or mail order CD\'s of recorded shows.
Money could have been made. There is little sense to how things are done.
a factory pressed cd would have sold more at the merch table than a download. it would be nice to have both options to purchase the album.
i dont think its right to hold back live (non-soundboard) tapes so that people are more inclined to buy an inferior product when its eventually released. that is just a way to get more money out of the most loyal fans who have stuck around this long.
part of the problem is the band/management are 10 years behind in utilizing the internet to promote themselves. live audience recordings on archive.org do not help or hurt the band at all. it just something to tide over the
**** fans to keep from losing them and give n00bs a way to quickly stream some audio to sample the bands music.
Bands these days need to be constantly posting content on their official web sites, facebook, twitter, and myspace, and others to give fans a reason to keep going to the their websites
twice a week bands should post video blogs, storys from touring and playing gigs, podcasts, an exclusive studio track recorded at a band rehearsal, or even just a video of one band member slapping another in the face with a slice of pizza. anything to keep them in direct contact with the fans on a regular basis. the management cannot do that for bands, they have to do it themselves so it is personal and the fans feel a connection to the band members. if a casual new fan forgets about a band for a month or two and misses the local show they may be lost permamently.
in 2010 people have very short attention spans because of being spoiled by youtube, access to free mp3 albums before they are released in stores, ipods thats hold 97348593798345734958346953456473658345783468576347 songs, on demand television, hulu, netfix, cell phones, etc. Fans will forget about your band the second something else interesting comes along. Its a lot of work but something that every serious band needs to be do unless they dont mind working a day job.
EDIT: and my fav track on Live As Is = Sundance