INTERACT FORUM

Hey,

I've been trying to find a download service the met my needs and was legal.  In searching through the net, I stumbled upon http://www.etree.org/.  It seems to be a group dedicated to sharing legal recordings of concerts from bands who give permission for their concerts to be recorded and traded.  Here is a list of some of the bands:
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/bandabbreviations.php

The music is all available in lossless formats, however, that is really to make sure that it doesn't pass through lossly formats.  On the whole, the quality of what I've downloaded has been quite reasonable.  From what I've seen, the trick is to look for either studio recording, recordings taking from the master soundboards, or from radio.  (I'm sure that the other methods also sound good, I'm just very limited on my total monthly bandwidth {I hate the connection deals in New Zealand}, so I tend to download the tracks that have a better chance of sounding good.

I've found that it's a great way to listen to artists that I've never heard of before... as well as listening to some artists whom I already like.  I'm just getting started, and having really even explored that much.

Here's a site where you can find files to download:
http://archive.org/audio/etree.php

These are two of the sets that I've downloaded and enjoyed:
Jack Johnson : Orpheum Theater, Boston, Ma 2002-11-14
http://archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=1991&from=mostViewed

Fat Chelsea : Electric Wilburland  
http://archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=2097&from=pickList
(Supposedly a studio recording, sounds very good, but I don't have a real nice system to really see the quality on right now.)

I'd love to hear other people's experiences.

So far I've found the quality has been as good, or better than most stuff I've found on Napster/Kazza in the past.

kiwi