One of my goals with this column is to encourage more people to listen to live concert recordings. To do so, you need to know where to actually download these recordings. The following are my current top three concert downloading sites. In the past six months, I have downloaded more shows than I have even been able to listen to from these three! These three sites are also featured this week because they represent three very different approaches to sharing concert recordings. The first is an archive/database, the second is a blog, and the third is a sharing community. All three approaches have unique advantages and disadvantages.

Live Music Archive

This is by far my favorite concert recording resource. Just click over, and you’ll see why. No other site (at the time of writing) matches the Live Music Archive in making large quantities of live music easily available. The site is easy to use and contains a tremendous amount of concert recordings. Just check out the artists listing. Over 4,000 acts are featured here; some of which have thousands of recordings available. As the Live Music Archive’s mission is to archive as many concert recordings as possible, a good portion of these sets are not worth our interest. That said, there are still dozens upon dozens of prime artists and bands featured, since band that allows the Live Music Archive to host their shows can have a page on here. All they need is for someone to tape their shows. Hell, a band could even tape their own shows and post them if they wanted. In fact, I’m sure that’s exactly what some bands on here do. As a result of these policies, the Live Music Archive provides one of the best taping resource for downloaders by its sheer volume.

The Live Music Archive is a one of a kind site as far as I can tell. It is the only non-profit organization dedicated to making concert recordings available for as wide of an audience as possible. The Live Music Archive is merely one aspect The Internet Archive which seeks to digitally archive as much information as possible. Formed out of a partnership between The Internet Archive and the taping community Etree.org (of which I know little), the LMA is a mission driven non-profit that accepts recordings from tapers all over the world. Concurrently, the site will always have certain advantages over other taping resources. Due to its non-profit status, the archive is managed by a dedicated staff of employees who accepting recordings from tapers all over the globe, any site would be hard pressed to match The Live Music Archive in terms of available material.

The LMA hosts all of its own material and typically offers concerts in MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. Some (typically the older recordings) are available in Shorten. All concerts are available in at least one lossless format. Lossy files (MP3, Ogg Vorbis) are only sometimes available, depending on the wishes of the taper. User reviews are frequently available for each recording, and can sometimes prove very useful for avoiding poor recordings. Because the LMA includes the work of so many tapers, the sound quality varies widely. As mentioned earlier, any taping-friendly band can be featured on the LMA, which unfortunately results in a taping pool dominated by crappy jam bands. However, an significant number of great bands are featured here, some with catalogs extending over decades. As a result, The LMA works best for exploring a band’s live history rather than for browsing new concerts. While the site lacks a strong editorial input, it makes up for this in organization, ease of use and the sheer quantity of material available.

NYCTaper

The Live Music Archive may have a staff dedicated to making live recordings available, but I personally doubt if anyone there matches the dedication that Dan Lynch (aka NYCTaper) has to sharing live music. NYCTaper is by and far the best example of a taping blog, bar none. Hell, sometimes I think it’s the best music site around. And because NYCTaper does such a good job covering the largest and best live music market in the country (New York), this is the place to hear recordings of current tours from your favorite bands.

NYCTaper adds new shows as they are recorded, which sometimes is nearly every day. At the very least, the site posts new material once a week. MP3 files are immediately available, and you can email to receive the download location for FLAC files. Also included with each concert recording is a setlist, pictures and a brief review. While this site is a blog, its search function is very easy to use, making it easy to find desired recordings. In addition to posted recordings, a schedule of upcoming recordings is posted along with various musical news items. All of this, combined with a side-bar and link feature to EardrumNYC’s concert schedule, makes NYCTaper.com your one-stop shop for live music lovers in New York.

But perhaps the site’s best feature is the site manager himself, Dan Lynch. While NYCTaper accepts the contributions of other tapers, most prominently by an individual called acidjack, the vast majority of the recordings are made by Lynch who has both fantastic equipment and taste in music. NYCTaper manages to record close to half of the shows I attend (so maybe I am a bit biased as far as his taste), and many of the biggest indie shows as they pass through. NYCTaper also manages to cover some less-known New York bands that receive little coverage elsewhere as well as some classic rock acts that are not typically covered on indie sites. Dan Lynch and Co also accepts requests for future recordings. Just be sure to get them on the guest list or buy him a ticket—he does this all for free. NYCTaper may be one man’s blog, but with the contributions he accepts, the city he covers and his own tenacious coverage of New York’s music scene, it manages to be the best place to hear new live music over the web.

Dimeadozen

Dimeadozen is a torrent site and therefore represents a different approach to concert trading: the large de-centralized community. Of the three sites featured this week, Dimeadozen is by far my least favorite, and torrents are only half of the problem. I only recently learned how to download torrents, and the actual downloading process is fairly simple, maintaining a good ratio on the site is still a challenge for me. My problem with Dimeadozen is that the site is poorly organized, making it very frustrating to find a desired recording.

Dimeadozen is easily the most difficult site to use here. Concerts are only available in lossless formats. This is fine for me (I personally hate MP3s, and I have a lot of storage space) but for those of you using iTunes, this could present some challenges (I will cover this further next week). Also, recordings are not organized in any easily browsable format like on The Live Music Archive. Hell, even NYCTaper can put together an alphabetical list of previous year’s recordings. On Dimeadozen, you can browse the most popular and the most recent additions, but you can’t just look at all the artists featured. This would be fine if the search function was 100% accurate, but it’s not. Some artist searches inevitably come up with tons of unwanted material. There are some gems on here for sure, but they take some time to uncover.

That being said, there is one aspect Dimeadozen’s approach to concert taping and sharing that poses unique advantages over NYCTaper and The Live Music Archive - permission. While NYCTaper (and presumably anybody else with a taping blog) and The Live Music Archive obtain permission in advance, Dimeadozen does the reverse. They will host any concert recording until the artist sends them a notice asking them to stop. Sure, tapers may need to obtain permission in advance of recording, but this is not always the case. As a result, Dimeadozen features some artists that do not have a known taping policy and are not currently available on NYCTaper or The Live Music Archive.

This doesn’t mean that Dimeadozen makes it a policy to violate copyrights. In fact, they are very diligent in enforcing copyrights. They post a list of artists who have asked to be removed and actively remove torrents that violate this policy. They also do not host any officially-released material. That means no albums, singles or EPs. The site simple does not wait for permission before hosting concert recordings. To me, this is an eminently reasonable approach. These days, artists are increasingly taping friendly, and there is no reason to prevent fans from hearing recordings simply because a group has not put together an official taping policy. I believe that the presumption should be in favor of sharing music until an artist takes steps to enforce their copyright. Thanks to this policy, Dimeadozen manages to be an invaluable resource even if it is a giant pain in the ass to use.

If you think you know a better place to download concerts, please email me at josephbogen@inyourspeakers.com I know there have to be other taping blogs out there. NYCTaper may be the best, but it isn’t the only one. Next week: a brief guide on how to overcome some very simple technical barriers to listening to concert recordings.