The upshot of all this fuss seems to indicate (to me, at least) that an official recording of some sort is indeed forthcoming. My hunch is that if the IEM had been held off until after any official releases it wouldn't have been such a big issue. That's the problem with having extremely lenient/liberal policies on recording--when you suddenly want to make them more restrictive it creates stress.

I've always felt that the free sharing of shows on this forum was wonderful, but I've also also always thought that it probably exceeded what MK and his management would prefer. Still, it is strange to be at this place where we are on the verge of keeping the recordings 'secret' again, although I can't see any other way out now that the official recording policies have been revised, then revised again--and now apparently to be revised yet again. I may be an MK junkie, but I have plenty of other recordings by him already and I enjoy plenty of other artists. I don't need a high-quality soundboard recording of this year's tour--but I really WANT one.

As for the digtal downloads end of this, they obviously don't know how to do it properly, or profitably, or both. I don't think it's because they don't want to release the recordings, it's just not a high priority and no doubt doesn't seem
'worth the effort'. Also, don't forget that after a recording is burned to cd anyone can make as many copies as they want--if there was a way to make sure that everyone paid I think MK and management would pursue the digital download thing more aggressively ( or at least a bit....). As for me, I would buy one or two shows just as I did last time. Why would I purchase every show when they are essentially the same setlist every night? That's not much incentive to buy them all--if there was a little variety then maybe I would want them all.....but what am I saying...there are no shows to buy anyway.

Keep Knopflerin' image