In response to the “most you’ve ever paid” thread I got on discogs. I noticed that they no longer list bootlegs, pirate records etc.
How long has this been the case and how does one reference the price of boots now?
Musings on the byways of popular culture
In response to the “most you’ve ever paid” thread I got on discogs. I noticed that they no longer list bootlegs, pirate records etc.
How long has this been the case and how does one reference the price of boots now?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
fentonsteve says
Really? There are 308 New Order boots listed under “Unofficial”.
DogFacedBoy says
Yes but you can’t sell them anymore it’s for information only.
They got a bit of heat from Bowie’s people over the Bureau Supply labels high quality vinyl releases following his death that were sold via listings. I think the more successful the site has got the more attention it gets from copyright police bit like Ebay
fentonsteve says
Oh. That is useful information, thanks.
minibreakfast says
I heard whispers that Amazon are interested in buying Discogs. Might be why they’re starting to have a ‘tidy up’.
Moose the Mooche says
And everybody knows you can’t get bootlegs on Amazon… oh no.
Baron Harkonnen says
What the fuck are eBay pontificating about. It’s not like they don’t sell boots. ‘Kin hell they even sell boots of official albums/box sets.
Mike_H says
The problem with listing bootlegs is that you can get different versions of the self-same recordings (with wildly-varying sound and pressing quality) sold under different titles with different covers. Often completely false information as to where the recordings were made, mis-titling of contents etc. too.
Personally, I think they should not be listed with legitimate releases at all. Perhaps a completely separate register of physical bootlegs for those who collect them.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Isn’t that what already exists, in effect, as the various ROIO sites? The ones I’ve used usually have a great deal of info, mostly submitted by knowledgeable punters, allowing you to clearly distinguish between boot versions worth having and those that don’t deserve shelf room.
DogFacedBoy says
You can still review bootleg releases and comment on the sound quality on discogs. Just not sell em
I have absolutely no problem with listing boots next to official stuff, they are in different sections
Moose the Mooche says
Then you get the murky world of “semi-official” recordings. A shitload of Sex Pistols boots were put on the legit market in the mid 80s, before the 1986 court case saw the Pists wrest control of their output from McClaren… including The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle, which was far more his work than theirs.
So in 1985 I bought a curious album called The Best of the Sex Pistols Live in a proper record shop. Most of it sounded like it was recorded through Steve Jones’s socks and it also featured a track that, in the words of Jon Savage, “Is not – and never will be – the Sex Pistols”.
Rigid Digit says
A lot of Sex Pistols “unofficial” releases came from the vaults of Dave Goodman.
Whenever a new one came along boasting a newly discovered mystery track, you could get your life it was a Goodman conceived Ex Pistols track, or a rehash of the 1976 demos with a snatch of additional guitar riff, drum beat or talking
Moose the Mooche says
What a bally rotter.
The Good Doctor says
This has been the case for about a year now. You can list but you can’t sell. It’s a blanket ban on ‘unofficial releases’- and yes that also includes the old school bootlegs whether it’s some dodgy C60 of a Silverfish gig bought on Camden Market or a lavish 1970s vintage Beatles Vinyl bootleg with lovingly produced artwork like the infamous ‘Black Album’.
I suspect this was a response to the market being flooded with cheap counterfeit Vinyl records from Europe with with badly reproduced sleeves mastered off a CD, knocked out to cash in on the vinyl revival.
You’ll see loads of this crap at record fairs and dodgy 2nd hand shops – the tell tale sign is it’s a pristine copy of Nirvana – Nevermind on 180 gram blue vinyl or an incredibly rare 60s Psych LP on brown vinyl in a sleeve that looks like it’s been photocopied. That stuff is total shit and no more legit than people selling fake aftershave or counterfeit designer jeans out of a suitcase.
The grey area is those releases that fall between the cracks – for example those crappy Steely Dan radio recordings, or the tacky shit that Ozit/Morpheus put out by The Fall, Joy Division, Beefheart etc claiming they own the rights – They’re still allowed because you can release substandard shite and rip people off as long as you can make some legal claim to it.
Bottom line is they’ve had to draw a line under anything that isn’t ‘official’ or ‘semi official’. Suffice to say I think this will pretty much kill off the crappy counterfeit market as it’ll make it much harder to resell them as the valuations on Discogs will be £0.