VIA RollingStone.com :

The service will begin after he plays Cape Town, South Africa on January 26th.

By ANDY GREENE
JANUARY 17, 2014 11:20 AM ET
Bruce Springsteen will begin offering fans the ability to download complete concerts following the kickoff of his 2014 tour in Cape Town, South Africa on January 26th. "Fans around the world can purchase a special USB wristband, both online and at the tour venues," says a press release. "They will be able to pick one show of their choice to download on their USB wristband (approximately 48 hours after the show)."

Springsteen explained his decision in a recent interview with NPR. "I'd like to make things more available through the Internet," he said. "The Internet has become our friend . . . I think we live more in a Grateful Dead touring idea, that everything you do is recorded now. And that's OK with me, you know. As a matter of fact, I believe on this tour, we're starting to do something like you can come in, you can buy a [wrist]band, you can get a copy of the night's show. So hopefully we're gonna do that at a really nice-quality level."

Many groups (Pearl Jam, Phish, Metallica) have been offering their fans instant bootlegs for years, but until now Springsteen has been extremely reluctant to release official live material. Despite heavy touring, his last live album with the E Street Band was 2001's Live in New York City, and even that wasn't a complete show. There have been a handful of live DVD/Blu Ray releases filmed at recent tours.

After four gigs in South Africa, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band head over to Australia and New Zealand for four weeks of shows. The only known date beyond that is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 3rd, though today's release says that "additional tour dates [are] expected to be announced."

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, we asked Springsteen about the possibility of additional dates in America. "It's not impossible," he said. "We had a few other select dates . . . a few in the States, sort of event shows. We're looking at it. I don't want to say 'yes' because I don't want to disappoint, but I certainly don't want to rule it out, too. We're looking closely at it. And there's places we missed on the last tour. As much as we played, we didn't get to Texas, where I love to play. We didn't get to Florida. There were some other places we didn't get on that entire tour. It might be fun to get back to some of those places."

There are so many GOOD models to emulate with this type of service, let's hope the Springsteen camp puts a good foot forward... *ahem*, lossless.

Yes...ABSOLUTELY! Lossless will get my purchase. Lossy will get ignored.

Or they could do it like this...

http://brucespringsteen.fanfire.com/cgi ... pringsteen

$40 for a souvenir USB wristband and a 320K MP3 download, and not available for all shows. You're welcome.

$40 for one show? Gotta wonder how all of those unemployed factory workers are supposed to be able to afford something like this...

$40 is crazy. But as to the 320K MP3 vs lossless, I defy anyone to tell the difference.

Sorry dude. I don't have "Golden ears that can hear a mouse piddle on a cotton ball" but there is a sonic difference. I rip most of my discs to 320K AAC files for storage size and portability. They are great for the car system or headphones for travelling, but they don't measure up when played on a quality home audio system as compared to a CD. The compressed files lack the dynamics of 16/44 audio and it's even more noticeable on hi rez media like SACD, Bluray or DVD-A.

Long story short. Bruce and Co. came to their senses. It will now be $9.99 for Mp3's and $14.99 for FLAC. Dowloaders, scan your drives!

http://stayhardstayhungry.wordpress.com ... ive-shows/

I just bought the Melbourne show with Highway To Hell. Loving it!

I think I may make that my first download from his tour.

Rick A.

For those who haven't seen it, the Brisbane show is incredible. Beyond the entire "The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle", there are a lot of other gems. (...and yes, the opener is the Bee Gees cover.)

http://brucespringsteen.fanfire.com/cgi ... =BSPDB264F

Setlist:

01. Stayin' Alive
02. Bruce Talk
03. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
04. Does this Bus Stop At 82nd Street
05. Growin' Up
06. Spirit In The Night
07. High Hopes
08. Just Like Fire Would
09. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
10. Sherry Darling
11. Save My Love
12. Bruce Talk 02
13. Fade Away
14. Bruce Talk 03
15. The E Street Shuffle
16. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
17. Kitty's Back
18. Wild Billy's Circus Story
19. Incident On 57th Street
20. Rosalita
21. New York City Serenade
22. Darlington County
23. Waiting on a Sunny Day
24. The Rising
25. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
26. Badlands
27. Glory Days
28. Born To Run
29. Bobby Jean
30. Dancing In The Dark
31. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
32. Bruce Talk 04
33. Highway To Hell
34. Bruce Talk 05
35. Thunder Road

Wow, what a set list! Now you know why Bruce hits the gym as much as he does. Look how long those set lists are.

Rick A.

That is a great set list! 35 songs! Whew!

Speaking of non instant bootlegs, Amazon.Com.UK just posted a listing for a 1978 Bruce concert; Live At The Capital Theatre, Passaic, N.J. September 19, 1978. Yes it's gray market, but until Buce starts opening up the downloads to older material, well a fan's gotta do what a fan's gotta do. Heck Bruce, I'll pay retail for a CD version of the soundtrack from the Houston Summit show on The Promise box set if it's put out there. IMHO the '78 tour was Bruce and the E Street Band's peak as performing artists and I'll grab whatever legal (or semi-legal) documents are out there. At least now I won't have to pick up that Wolfgang's Vault download.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LLNJ63W/?tag=imwan-21

Let us know if anymore Bruce shows get listed over there at Amazon U.K. as time goes on. Thank you for passing this along.

I’m also curious about this one & am wondering if there’s any similarity between this new release on the Klondike label and the versions that I know of that were released on Crystal Cat CD (‘Passaic Night’) or the Apocalypse Sound DVD (‘Piece the Resistance’).

Just like the original Italian Great Dane box-set release that came out years ago (‘Piece de Resistance ‘), the Crystal Cat release was sourced from cassettes that were made directly from the radio broadcast of the show (I believe either from WPLJ.FM or WNEW.FM). The DVD that came out later on the Apocalypse Sound Label had much better audio quality and may have been sourced from one of the production Beta Tapes that was made during the run of shows at the theater. Several of the tracks that were incomplete on the Crystal Cat Title (especially the beginning of ‘Back Streets’) are in much better quality. If I’m not mistaken, the mix for this particular radio broadcast was done by Jimmy Iovine.

Most recently there was another release from the radio broadcast (‘Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Legendary Broadcast 1978’) on the ESB Label that was also sourced from cassettes from the same broadcast. Although this title is more complete with the radio station DJ comments, there are problems with the cassette reels that result in a low but noticeable screech during ‘Prove It All Night’ and ‘Kitty’s Back’.

As far as Wolfgang’s Vault is concerned, there seems to be only five tracks from the September 19th show on their website. The two sets from the following night on September 20th are (almost) complete. Also, have any of these shows from the 1978 ‘Darkness’ Tour been played on Bruce’s XM radio Program?

If this release on Klondike is really from the highest quality source with ‘Backstreets - Sad Eyes’, ‘Kitty’s Back’ and the extended version of ‘Prove It All Night’ this one may be worth checking out. Otherwise, if the audio quality and packaging is sub-par, better to stay away.

I also wonder if Klondike is supposed to be a pun in reference to Crystal Cat as in Klondike Kat from that ancient TV cartoon I used to watch when I as much younger.

Thanks again & like the rest of you I’m waiting for that CSNY Box Set (The employees at the local Starbucks that I went to this morning didn’t even know that this was a title exclusive to their store and had absolutely no idea what I was talking about – try that in a long line of customers).

That Passaic show has been around for years. I bet there are people here who would be willing to help you find a copy.

Speaking of Springsteen downloads, does anyone know why the Springsteen site has stopped selling them? The entire downed category has been removed from his official store.

This is the first I've heard of that, but if I had to guess I'd say it could be over quality control. The show I bought sounded terrible.

Apparently these were intended to be available only while the current tour was still underway... looks like the last date of availability was June 30. Doesn't seem like fans were given much in the way of advance warning, though.

https://www.facebook.com/brucespringste ... 6518925250

Bruce Springsteen Launches Archival Concert Download Service
The series is beginning with a 2012 concert, but expect many classic shows from the 1970s and beyond soon
By Andy Greene | November 18, 2014
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... e-20141118



Earlier this year, we asked Bruce Springsteen about the possibility of releasing official concert recordings that have circulated within his fan community for years. "I suppose it would be nice to get some of the classic concerts that have kept people's interest over the past 20, 30 or even 40 years and maybe formalize them in some way," he said. "That's not off the drawing board."

This week, it went from the drawing board to reality with the launch of live.brucespringsteen.net. The site is offering downloads of most shows from the 2014 High Hopes Tour, a complete performance of Born To Run from a recent show in New Zealand and, in the first volume of their archival series, the launch of the Wrecking Ball tour at New York's Apollo Theater on March 9th, 2012. The shows are available via MP3 ($9.95), lossless ($12.95), HD-Audio ($19.95) and CD ($23).

This new live series was put together by nugs.net, an organization that's previously worked with Pearl Jam, Phish and Metallica on their own live downloads. In an interview with Backstreets, the site's founder and CEO Brad Sterling said he initially reached out to Springsteen's camp in 2009 and got turned down, but when he tried again this year, they were suddenly interested. It turns out that Springsteen changed his mind when he realized just how many of his shows were available on YouTube.

"He was like, 'We can do better than this. We own the masters!" said Sterling. "What's great is, he wasn't saying, 'Fuck those guys. Take that stuff down. Screw YouTube.' It was, 'If this is happening, we should be doing it officially.'"

The archive series may be starting with a relatively recent show, but expect them to dig deeper into Springsteen's history with future releases. "It's very exciting to think about the different eras that will be covered," said Sterling. "And what's really interesting is where the tapes are coming from. What's in the vault; what isn't. Not all of it is in their archives, so they are sourcing material now."

Future plans are vague, but Sterling indicated they are likely to offer famous 1970s shows that have circulated for decades. Those will presumably include Philadelphia 2/5/75, Passaic, NJ 9/19/78 and San Francisco 12/15/78. While most shows will likely be sourced from soundboard tapes, multi-track tapes and radio broadcasts, Sterling indicated that audience tapes have been used on past Nugs.net projects and they might be used again at some point for a Springsteen release.

It's also possible the series will release music that predates Springsteen's 1973 debut album. "I had a whole other career as a heavy-metal guitarist that never came out on record anywhere," he said earlier this year when asked about the possibility of releasing archival material. "There's tons of music. I never close the door on any of it."

In addition to concert recordings, the new website also offers high-resolution downloads of every album in Springsteen's catalog.

I had bootlegs of those three shows at one time. In fact, I still may have them.