I ran a site called Deadabase which I had to later rename to Astrojams (see Archive.org for copies of it) which was one of the first to distribute Dead shows on MP3. 1996 I think. The Dead sent me a cease and desist letter and I fought it. In the end they ended up allowing me to continue to do it, but released the MP3 statement that you've referenced in your post.
This was pre Napster and the cost of bandwidth was about $5000 per month. I was in college and couldn't afford it so I was running Double Click ad banners which generated $7000 a month. The Dead were contacted by an attorney interested in making a name for himself and he was the one that issued the legal pressure. I got to speak to Bob Weir and Jon Barlow about it and both supported what I was doing but because the Dead organization was a corporation, it was out of their hands.
I had to shutdown the site because although the Dead allowed me to continue distributing their MP3's, I couldn't generate any revenues, even as a non-profit. I didn't think outside the box and invent Napster (I tried really hard.) It was a great experience for me and I went on to do better things.
The sad thing is that I pitched the idea of creating the first digital music website to the CEO of the company, it would've been a joint venture, but he was against it. It would've been the first artist sanctioned digital download site, way before its time. That guy missed the boat on that one.
This was pre Napster and the cost of bandwidth was about $5000 per month. I was in college and couldn't afford it so I was running Double Click ad banners which generated $7000 a month. The Dead were contacted by an attorney interested in making a name for himself and he was the one that issued the legal pressure. I got to speak to Bob Weir and Jon Barlow about it and both supported what I was doing but because the Dead organization was a corporation, it was out of their hands.
I had to shutdown the site because although the Dead allowed me to continue distributing their MP3's, I couldn't generate any revenues, even as a non-profit. I didn't think outside the box and invent Napster (I tried really hard.) It was a great experience for me and I went on to do better things.
The sad thing is that I pitched the idea of creating the first digital music website to the CEO of the company, it would've been a joint venture, but he was against it. It would've been the first artist sanctioned digital download site, way before its time. That guy missed the boat on that one.