Wolfgang’s Vault To Open Entire Concert Catalog

Prepare for a deluge of live concert recordings. Wolfgang’s Vault, the online concert streaming service, is about to unleash an amazing boatload of live concerts available for downloading.

Starting November 3, users can access 1,000 titles from 919 artists (to the approximately 500 already available) for purchase from the site’s Concert Vault section, according to Billboard. The site also offers certain shows for free download.

Acts whose concerts will be available to buy include Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull, Hall & Oates and The Grateful Dead.

This is a serious collection! And let’s applaud Wolfgang’s Vault for dealing with the performers and record labels to make this type of music service available. One can only imagine the copyright complications surrounding these live recordings, so this brand of umbrella copyright agreement with so many content owners deserves kudos.

The downloads are “the result of negotiating agreements with performers and record labels that not only acknowledge our ownership of this material but gives us rights to exploit it,” said Bill Sagan, CEO and founder of Wolfgang’s Vault LLC and its parent company, Norton LLC.

The agreements include royalty payments in addition to the mechanical royalties the company routinely pays to publishers.

Any music fan with a passion, or passing interest, in ‘classic’ rock/jazz/pop/blues/whatever(!) can really find some gems in this mammoth, digital warehouse of concerts.

Do you like the Grateful Dead? The site just put up Grateful Dead concerts from May 15, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City; the plan is to upload close to 165 previously unreleased Grateful Dead concerts.

The price for all this live awesomeness? Downloads will run $7.98 and $8.98 for MP3s and $11.98 and $12.98 for Flac recordings. The site will also introduce a $48 annual membership, which includes a $50 gift certificate, discounts on recordings and memorabilia and unlimited higher-end 192k streaming.

“The objective is that just about everything we stream we’ll be able to download,” said Sagan. “When we hit Nov. 3, more than half the concerts…will be available for download. By Christmas or slightly after Christmas we’ll be closer to three-quarters.”

Look for video footage to also find its way to the website in the near future.

Leading up to the Nov. 3 “Cracking the Vault Day” blowout, Wolfgang’s Vault is offering a small amount of new shows twice weekly.

Future releases include:

• Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Bonnie Raitt (Oct. 2)
• Hall & Oates and Boz Scaggs (Oct. 6)
• Santana and Chicago (Oct. 9)
• Lou Reed (Oct. 13)
• Miles Davis, Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra (Oct. 16)
• Twisted Sister and the Ramones (Oct. 20)
• The Byrds, Dolly Parton and Waylon Jennings (Oct. 23)
• Cheap Trick (Oct. 27)
• Mountain (Oct. 30)

There are some absent stars so far in the download warehouse. Sagan says negotiations are continuing with the likes of Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Who and Dire Straits. He’s hoping agreements will be reached with most of those soon.

Will you check out any of the live concerts on Wolfgang’s Vault?