Hey. My website pointed me back here as the source of a few hits. I love finding feedback good or bad, so hello - I'm the Live and Loud! guy. First things first -
1. Thanks to MikeP for providing this resource and allowing me on.
2. Furyboy - thanks for the kind words and sharing the link out there, I really appreciate it. The more people who find these, the less that feel the need to buy them off people for silly sums of cash...
3. Eddie - I don't "expect donations" as you put it. You are able to download the shows off my site at any time of your choosing and at a good download speed, depending on your connection. I pay, so you can do that. I don't mind paying for it either; I want you to get a good service, like I spend hours on improving the sound quality of each gig before its uploaded - to provide the best possible sound quality I can put together. That Fury recording may not be the highest quality even now but its a darn sight better than it was before I started work on it. Of course when you download my standard MP3, you can split them yourself (I'm sure most people can). I don't expect a thank you from everyone who grabs my files (that would be thousands of emails each year I could never find time to read) but I would like to explain why - and only after several years - I gave people the OPTION to donate to my costs.
Let me start by saying - I don't particularly like people who profit from bootlegs. I started repairing and remastering these shows AND offering them up for free PRECISELY to try and stop people spending 20/30/40 quid or more on a crappy CD or bad vinyl pressing with a cover someone has just put together in photoshop, that has a 3rd generation hissy audience recording on it. Since I started the Live and Loud! series in 2012, the shows have always been improved and upgraded and made available - for free. That will not change. THEY ARE FREE. You downloaded the Numan show for free - you can download every show off the site if you wish, for free. Forever.
I have - believe it or not - had enquiries from people on my Facebook group wishing to donate towards my costs. I've never publicly asked for it, or said what costs I incur. I choose to continue to pay for my online server space - despite not being able to work at the moment for health reasons, so no new money is coming in. I took the decision to continue to do this and I don't have to - I could take the whole lot offline tomorrow. But I enjoy it, and people get enjoyment from the music and from finding gigs they never knew existed, in good quality.
Quite separately, I regularly get asked for lossless files or for separate, tagged MP3s. Yes, I really do get asked for them - not everyone has the basic skills to do it themselves (or the time maybe, I don't know). I have always said no in the past due to the extra time it takes - it takes far longer than 5 minutes to do it properly. As an example, I had a request for a show over 2 hours long to be split into separate tagged FLACs a few weeks ago. Setting track markers in a wav of a 2 hour+ show at the right place for each song (not all of which I was familiar with), then marking up the track titles correctly, then exporting the separate tracks and finishing off the tagging so it all looks at least halfway professional took me a couple of hours. I also retweaked the original wav before I did all that, as I've learned a few tricks since that one was done in 2012 - I made it sound better again. Didn't have to put the extra work in, I chose to.
So - donations. I wasn't really comfortable with the idea despite a few people offering me money for nothing, as I said, but I finally figured if people wished to donate, a bit of money dribbling in towards my costs would be useful and I could at least provide them with something extra in return. So as not everyone CAN split their own files, tag them; and some people prefer to listen to FLACs than MP3s, I can provide whatever they want. So those who donate get something in return, not just the regular service.
You don't need that, and that's absolutely fine. You don't feel the need to say thanks or donate - and that's fine. But some people do, or are happy to donate a couple of quid after finding a few shows they want and they want to give something back. Some have chosen to donate and not ask for anything in return - they've been long term users of my site and just wished to express their gratitude. You might find that hard to believe but again it's true.
So no I don't "expect" donations. But for those who do choose to donate (and its probably far less than 1% of my users) - they contribute in a small way to keep the site going. They don't cover my costs but every little helps right now.
If I was a profiteer, like you think I am, I could choose to put these repaired and remastered gigs on CDs and put them on eBay and charge for them - a tenner? Twenty quid maybe? God knows I could do with the money coming in - and other people DO do that. 1 guy selling Bowie boots on CDs contacted me and asked how I got my shows sounding so good, because he couldn't. He was trying to do a similar job to me but so he could charge 30 quid for a CD. And he had people buying them, despite him doing an inferior job. That's the kind of shit that really annoys me - he grabs a file off the internet somewhere, does a half assed 10 minute job, sticks it on CD, spends longer doing a pretty cover, then flogs it to someone for 30 quid. Making a ton of money off an artist he is apparently a fan of... That doesn't sit well with me.
I don't mind if people visit my site, grab all the files and disappear. That's fine! I don't mind if they think the site and what I do is crap. Its free, its not cost them anything. But I do mind being lumped in with people profiteering, when I started doing this precisely because I was anti profiteering. Last time I checked at the start of 2017, my shows had been downloaded something like 38000 times. I guess if I'd charged for all those, I'd not have 38000 DLs but I'd still have a fair few and pocketed a fair wedge of cash. But I didn't and I never will. More fool me, maybe!
Long response I suppose and I don't suppose anyone read to the end but my conscience is absolutely clear. Feel free to keep taking the shows for free - they're there to be listened to, whether you appreciate what went into them or not. And they'll keep coming - I have hundreds by all kinds of artists, all sat waiting to get done. I'll probably die of old age long before they're all done but hey, let's see how far we get...
Cheers all