Well, it has taken decades but the music industry has finally figured out a way to counter all those people smuggling in audio recorders to concerts. (Yes, I realize I'm showing my age by the tape recorder reference in the title.) As explained in the Wall Street Journal article titled, "Bootlegs Go Corporate," entertainment companies are undertaking the monumental task of selling legitimate copies of live shows and making them available immediately after a concert.

I'm pleased to see that a CD of a concert will sell for less than the cost of a t-shirt (I don't know if you've tried to buy one lately but, I spent $40 for a shirt a few years ago). I think the low cost is a huge selling point for this service, especially considering the general age range of concert attendees (myself excluded, of course). It seems like it would be a lot less trouble to shell out $10 for a legal, IP-rights-respecting CD instead of trying to figure out how to hide a small recording device from the security "pat downs" that are currently en vogue.

The WSJ article references the extreme logistical difficulties that arise when you try to offer this service at large arena concerts but, it would definitely work well for smaller venues where you might only need to make a few hundred CDs available. In fact, smaller venues such as CBGBs have made video and audio recordings of shows available for years but they only hand over one copy to the performers. This service is adding the very important mass production and distribution element to the equation. I think the "corporate bootleg" service is an important step in the right direction.

I'm definitely curious to see if this will catch on and how the licensing agreements will be hammered out. Vivendi Universal and Clear Channel have already worked out licensing agreements that factor in the corporate bootleg service and I'm willing to bet that other companies will follow suit.