Very Upset with CD-Rs

umlawgrad

It's amazing the number of people here that think the band or anyone working on behalf of the band can do no wrong.

I am happy to have CD bootlegs. I merely think it should have been made more clear that the CD were CD-Rs and not standard CDs as was the case in 2000 and 2003. This is not even referenced on the bootleg order page. Here is the quote from the FAQ:

"What are the details on the CDs?
In addition to digital bootlegs, CDs will be made-to-order using recycled material. The price for hard copy bootlegs is $16.99/show and will be available exclusively through www.pearljam.com."

I know for a fact that may people do not purchase CD-Rs for various reasons.

eddieved24

So Sorry Guys, I know this is really dumb, but I need some help here. I have read all thee above posts, but to be honest I am still confused. I just want to know what a cd-r is in the first place. Will I be getting a physical cd in the mail that I can play in my portable cd player? that is all I really care about. I have boots going back to 92, so I have heard the band sound shitty, and I have heard them sound crystal clear. I am not really worried about the quality, just want to know what a CD-R is! Again I apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject!

Notch89

eddieved24 wrote:

So Sorry Guys, I know this is really dumb, but I need some help here. I have read all thee above posts, but to be honest I am still confused. I just want to know what a cd-r is in the first place. Will I be getting a physical cd in the mail that I can play in my portable cd player? that is all I really care about. I have boots going back to 92, so I have heard the band sound shitty, and I have heard them sound crystal clear. I am not really worried about the quality, just want to know what a CD-R is! Again I apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject!

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq01.html#S1-1

mdg164

LeatherMosquitoMan wrote:

I hope we don't get bootlegs from here on. I'll still get the shows, but i hope we don't have official releases any more. The 10C has bent over backwards for everyone for 17 years. We as a whole, don't deserve it any more. And that saddens me for those of us who love every official recording that's available.

Remember 2007? We'd kill to have 2007 bootlegs w/the 2008 quality.

You just don't seem to grasp the concept that we are all very happy that they offer bootlegs. We are pissed for a few reasons:

1) We don't automatically agree with anything related to PJ
2) 10C mis-led everyone, most likely in an effort to increase sales
3) Shipping. If you buy one boot for $17, it gets shipped right away. If you bought multiple boots in the same order for $17 each, you wait for CD-R's you could have downloaded and burnt yourself weeks ago. We should save money on shipping by waiting for a combined order!

LukinFan

LeatherMosquitoMan wrote:

It did say 'burn-to-order cd's'

Then why didn't you?

I'm totally happy w/them.

I haven't gotten mine yet, but I'm sure they will rock when I do. I'm so tired of all the BS threads on here how bad they are

vedderoffdead

LukinFan wrote:

I haven't gotten mine yet, but I'm sure they will rock when I do. I'm so tired of all the BS threads on here how bad they are

LukinFan, you always come across as a pretty sharp guy IMO, so I'm just wondering...How could ALL these threads and ALL these complaints be BS? Do you honestly think everyone is just making this stuff up? There are some legitimate gripes here. Just my 2 cents...

Sadlip

LeatherMosquitoMan wrote:

I hope we don't get bootlegs from here on. I'll still get the shows, but i hope we don't have official releases any more. The 10C has bent over backwards for everyone for 17 years. We as a whole, don't deserve it any more. And that saddens me for those of us who love every official recording that's available.

Remember 2007? We'd kill to have 2007 bootlegs w/the 2008 quality.

OMFG, this person above is really off base. You hear a lot of this over the years. What the heck does it mean that we don't deserve it anymore??? You pay to be a part of something, they provide a service.

It's like saying we as a whole don't deserve the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola!

To be clear, no one's bending over backwards for anyone else. We pay, they provide a service. It's pretty simple.

In this case, they mislead people thinking they were ordering pressed CDs and are actually shipping CDRs. I could give a shit what this COMPANY, or any COMPANY has done for me over the years. When you have false advertising, it's false advertising. While it may not be a big deal to you, it is a big deal to folks who ordered one thing, and are going to get another.

Tuolumne Mama

I don't understand any of this techie stuff. I just hope I get a cd I can listen to and relive the awesome show I saw. Not sure what order they are making these in but I haven't got mine yet for DC. Has anyone else got theirs yet?

WaveCameCrashin

pilatesdog wrote:

For goodness sake , Pearl Jam offers fans an opportunity to purchase bootlegs of shows and you fucks constantly bitch. Would you rather have some drunken idiot holding up some recording device that you can here his girlfriend trying to sing every song. Be thankful you latched onto a great band who tries to be as fan friendly as possible. Become a Metallica fan!

thats what mine sounds like,obviously you dont understand.

vedderoffdead

gvn2fly74 wrote:

thats what mine sounds like,obviously you dont understand.

Mine too. The Bonaroo boot sounds like there were 12 people in the middle of a field in Tennessee all drunk on moonshine and one of them had a recorder. It's almost embarrasing. I would NEVER play it for anyone else.

rydb

mdg164 wrote:

You just don't seem to grasp the concept that we are all very happy that they offer bootlegs. We are pissed for a few reasons:

1) We don't automatically agree with anything related to PJ
2) 10C mis-led everyone, most likely in an effort to increase sales
3) Shipping. If you buy one boot for $17, it gets shipped right away. If you bought multiple boots in the same order for $17 each, you wait for CD-R's you could have downloaded and burnt yourself weeks ago. We should save money on shipping by waiting for a combined order!

I understand your gripe, but if 10C or Pearl Jam payed to ship each show to you as it became available, one of two things would happen:

1 - Pearl Jam would lose a ton of money in shipping costs
2 - That increase in shipping cost would be passed on to you

I agree that the language they used was misleading, but I also agree with other posters that most bands don't offer recording of their shows for DL or actual CD/CD-R. I'm not looking for a fight, but seriously, there's more serious stuff going on in the world that it really seems trivial making a stink over a $20 3-CD set. If you're that upset, return them, get a refund and DL and burn them yourself.

mdg164

rydb wrote:

I understand your gripe, but if 10C or Pearl Jam payed to ship each show to you as it became available, one of two things would happen:

1 - Pearl Jam would lose a ton of money in shipping costs
2 - That increase in shipping cost would be passed on to you

1) Pearl Jam would lose nothing; Kufala, the company that is selling the bootlegs wouldn't make as much!

2) Each boot cost $17 including shipping. If I bought just one show, it would cost $17. Many people went to 1 show, and bought that 1 show. They would not sell it at a loss! If I bought the first and last show of the tour, it would cost $34 ($17x2)... but I would have to wait until they "burnt" the last show to recieve both discs. Kufala saves on shipping, and makes more money. If I would have ordered the first show of the tour, and the next day ordered the last show, they would have shipped seperatly, and still cost me $34!

Get_Right

well thanks for the heads up
I guess I will buy the downloads and make my own CDRs
are the flacs better quality than the CDRs?????????????

gracias

slightofjeff

vedderoffdead wrote:

Mine too. The Bonaroo boot sounds like there were 12 people in the middle of a field in Tennessee all drunk on moonshine and one of them had a recorder. It's almost embarrasing. I would NEVER play it for anyone else.

See, I don't understand this at all. It sounds fine to me. Perfectly fine. I play it my car all the time, and not one person who has ridden with me has said, "You know, this sounds crappy."

Mostly, it's "Wow! They played Hard to Imagine at this show?" or "They played Release in the second encore?"

That -- and the fact that there have been people bitching about sound quality EVERY SINGLE TOUR -- leads me to believe that the "bitchers" are just being way too picky.

I have the Bonnaroo boot. And it sounds fine.

norm

slightofjeff wrote:

See, I don't understand this at all. It sounds fine to me. Perfectly fine. I play it my car all the time, and not one person who has ridden with me has said, "You know, this sounds crappy."

Mostly, it's "Wow! They played Hard to Imagine at this show?" or "They played Release in the second encore?"

That -- and the fact that there have been people bitching about sound quality EVERY SINGLE TOUR -- leads me to believe that the "bitchers" are just being way too picky.

I have the Bonnaroo boot. And it sounds fine.

same here.....sounds spectacular.....i didn't know pearl jam had so many sound engineers as fans...and i'm buying a boot to hear the band, not the crowd....i'll never understand that complaint

inhiding 1976

slightofjeff wrote:

See, I don't understand this at all. It sounds fine to me. Perfectly fine. I play it my car all the time, and not one person who has ridden with me has said, "You know, this sounds crappy."

Mostly, it's "Wow! They played Hard to Imagine at this show?" or "They played Release in the second encore?"

That -- and the fact that there have been people bitching about sound quality EVERY SINGLE TOUR -- leads me to believe that the "bitchers" are just being way too picky.

I have the Bonnaroo boot. And it sounds fine.

I agree, maybe we have a different Bonnaroo boot then everyone else. It sounds fine and the cardboard casing and decorative CD-R's along with the set list is exactly why I ordered the physical CD-R. Bonnaroo and Hartford are the only bootlegs I am purchasing so I spent a little extra to get the physical CD-R's. I will be honest some of the lead guitar seems muted in some of the songs but you can still hear it, bass a little high but it all comes together eventually. During Mike's solo's it seems they focused on making sure the sound was up. All and all, as whole I am happy with my purchase.

raszputini

1. My experience has been that high-end stereo systems have no problem with "burnt" CDs, it's low-end and in particular, older systems that have difficulty.

2. Bands in the "jamband" community have been doing this "mastered bootleg" thing for a very long time - longer than PJ. Phish, Widespread Panic, Government Mule, Phil and Friends, Umphrey's McGee, STS9, Particle, and many have the same system. You can buy mp3 or flacs for download, flacs are usually a little more expensive, or you can order them and have them shipped, in which case you get the same thing (BURNT). You are paying extra for the packaging. PJ is doing the same thing that other bands that distribute all their live shows do.

3. I didn't expect pressed boots. I understand the confusion from the various statements coming from 10c, but I would've done a little more digging before I assumed these were going to be silvers.

4. There's no way with mastering, production, packaging, etc. that PJ is making a ton of money on these. They're probably making some, but they should.

5. As we get more and more digital and peer-to-peer, we can expect more of these kind of decisions, which is the decision to distribute this stuff in the quickest, least expensive and easiest way. It is very difficult to project sales on these bootlegs, which in turn makes it difficult to know how many to press. Unless you're going to keep going back and making press run after press run - which is MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE. That's why PJ has gradually moved away from the model they used in 2000. Remember, this all began to undercut bootleggers who were charging $25 to $30 bucks 10 years ago for a far lesser quality recording. These boots are not physically designed to be "durable", the data itself is forever durable and can be reproduced over and over. That's the idea.

6. I think we all just need to be happy we're getting them in any form. Most "big, rich rock bands" don't do this - because it isn't a real money-maker. Radiohead and NIN, who are as progressive with this stuff as anyone, don't even do this. The impression I've gotten over the past few tours is that PJ isn't that excited about continuing to do this and are doing so simply because the fans REALLY want them. Remember the 2007 tour?

slightofjeff

raszputini wrote:

1. My experience has been that high-end stereo systems have no problem with "burnt" CDs, it's low-end and in particular, older systems that have difficulty.

2. Bands in the "jamband" community have been doing this "mastered bootleg" thing for a very long time - longer than PJ. Phish, Widespread Panic, Government Mule, Phil and Friends, Umphrey's McGee, STS9, Particle, and many have the same system. You can buy mp3 or flacs for download, flacs are usually a little more expensive, or you can order them and have them shipped, in which case you get the same thing (BURNT). You are paying extra for the packaging. PJ is doing the same thing that other bands that distribute all their live shows do.

3. I didn't expect pressed boots. I understand the confusion from the various statements coming from 10c, but I would've done a little more digging before I assumed these were going to be silvers.

4. There's no way with mastering, production, packaging, etc. that PJ is making a ton of money on these. They're probably making some, but they should.

5. As we get more and more digital and peer-to-peer, we can expect more of these kind of decisions, which is the decision to distribute this stuff in the quickest, least expensive and easiest way. It is very difficult to project sales on these bootlegs, which in turn makes it difficult to know how many to press. Unless you're going to keep going back and making press run after press run - which is MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE. That's why PJ has gradually moved away from the model they used in 2000. Remember, this all began to undercut bootleggers who were charging $25 to $30 bucks 10 years ago for a far lesser quality recording. These boots are not physically designed to be "durable", the data itself is forever durable and can be reproduced over and over. That's the idea.

6. I think we all just need to be happy we're getting them in any form. Most "big, rich rock bands" don't do this - because it isn't a real money-maker. Radiohead and NIN, who are as progressive this stuff as anyone, don't even do this. The impression I've gotten over the past few tours is that PJ isn't that excited about continuing to do this and are doing so simply because the fans REALLY want them. Remember the 2007 tour?

I wish we could make this post a sticky. Word for fucking word.

Ledbetterman10

I don't care if they're CDRs. I only bought one (MSG 1) anyway. now, if there are gaps or clicks between tracks....that would be fucking bullshit.

olderman

There are gaps between tracks on my Bonnaroo boot. My WPB and Tampa do not have the gaps. This implies an inconsistent production process at Kafula.

I don't think Kafula will be back for the next bootleg series.