Grateful Dead

I downloaded everything on here for months....I thought the Dead were giving back to their longtime fans. I spent thousands on 100+ shows, CD's, travel, breaking down on highways, etc. over the past 20+ years and I thought the Dead set this site up for their fans to download select tracks. I figured that true collectors would be given a taste of certain shows in here, and then eventually the Dead would make entire shows available for purchase or something along those lines. I am blown away by this week's realization that the Dead are still trying to milk their dwindling fanbase out of every nickel. This should and still could be a nice nod to their fans. It was a nice thought while it lasted, whether intentional or not. Chad

I think this "Taper's section" has been a scam all along. Look at the graphic at the top right of this page. It shows the "taper's section" from an apparently outdoor Grateful Dead concert. I would guess the vintage of the photo is late 80's - early 90's. Where are the crispy lo-gen aud tapes that the guys in the graphic were getting? All we ever got from this site was soundboards recorded by Bear, Betty, Healy or whoever. "Taper's section" indeed.

RE: David L's response this Monday - 1. It's another misstep in a series of abrupt missteps regarding the legacy of something we all feel passionate about, the handling of the music in the vault. It's not just the yanking of the downloads, it's also the return of the Download Series discs without the covers. Ummm, why would I want to complete my collection without the matching cover art to the eight I've already got? Same with Dick's Pick's, I started to download them to save on postage costs, and since they offered tray cards & covers the only thing missing was the liner notes, again, now no cover art. Perhaps you get it after purchase, but it doesn't say that anywhere. Where's the 66 Rarities disc? The amount of solo and related music, even stuff on the Rhino label is paltry. Where's the Garcia plays Dylan disc? The store (the vault in effect) feels so half assed and poorly thought out. 12/31/76 & 2/19/71 both good shows in wide circulation, both are sonic improvements, but they feel less than inspired as choices. 11/73 anyone? I think for me all these things coalesced this past Monday with the streaming note. 2. The Taper's Section and the GDH archive releases was rebuilding interest in the music and the community, with older fans as well as newcomers. What an advertisting blunder, you have a hungry, near captive audience willing and eager to be pummeled with promo's for new products, features & services that now is once again scattered, upset, dissapointed and quickly losing interest again. 3. The trolls are out and they are really nasty. Alot of people wrote very heartfelt and interesting posts on the boards connected to the Taper's Section & the GDH Vault sections, but some of the posts are so angry and personal in nature, the vibe they put forth spoils it. I suppose this is generally true in any semi-anynomous forum and not too surprising, still... 4. Part of David Lemieux's response, posted this Monday, bothers me, David Lemieux (in quotes) wrote: "Recently, I and others that work on dead.net became aware that certain fans had been regularly downloading the tracks offered in the Taper Section." (cue: Dooley Wilson playing piano & singing As Time Goes By) I'm shocked, shocked to find out that people were downloading the free content dead.net put up! This sounds so lame and disingenuous. Since November of last year, I assure you, people have been regularly downloading these tracks. What may have happened is that as word of mouth spread, their bandwidth useage & costs skyrocketed. "From the very beginning, this program has always been intended to be a "for streaming only" service. Downloading was never announced, described or promoted in any manner." Perhaps not, and one can never know what's in another's mind, but does David really want us to believe that he thought we would all sit at our PC's & laptops to listen and not save these files? Really? In an era when I-Pod's are ubiquitous? That the IT folks at WEA/Rhino/dead.net and the suits never saw this situation for what it was in any way, shape or form at any time. Phooey. Defies logic. "The situation that developed over the past months is very different than my original plan." I don't think anybody is really surprised by this. It's tragic as this was without a doubt one of the coolest things that has ever been done by any artist/record company for the fans. Particularly the rabid collectors, the heard most of it crowd, the deeply cynical, everyone was finding something of interest in what was being done every week in the Taper's Section. 5. Having taken the time to write a concise letter (due to filter: under 1000 characters) to the webmaster at dead.net getting their trite form response: "Dear Friend, Thanks for your recent input regarding dead.net. We truly appreciate your ongoing interest and support. Dead.net Team" I should note that every time I wrote to David L. with query'sabout music in the vault I received a personal response. Robert Tacker