Downloading Metallica

Since 2004, LiveMetallica.com has been the official source for the band’s concert downloads. But it’s always been about the group’s complete concert sets, as it resisted pleas to allow individual song downloads.

But that was then. Now you can grab any song from every concert the band has performed since 2004 for 99 cents per tune, while full shows are still priced at $9.95. High quality FLAC versions of complete sets are also available for $12.95 each.

The relationship between Metallica and music downloads was never a case of love at first sight. During those anything-goes days of the original Napster, the band’s Lars Ulrich led the charge against copyright-infringing downloads as the band sued Napster, and the drummer made the rounds of news programs denouncing illicit file-sharing as just another form of thievery.

Over the years, Metallica cautiously waded into the download waters. Saying it did not want to contribute to the demise of the album, the band held back its catalog from iTunes when the online music service launched in 2003 because Apple insisted on selling individual song downloads. That changed in 2006 when Metallica agreed to allow iTunes to sell its songs as well as albums.

Of course, the band’s fury over downloads was always directed at file-swapping studio recordings. When it came to concert recordings, the group borrowed a page from another San Francisco-area band – The Grateful Dead – and allowed, even encouraged, fans to record and swap tapes of the band’s live performances.

“This is the next logical step in a process that began back in 1991 when we first implemented the ‘Taper Section’ at our shows, where our fans were encouraged to bring in their own gear to record the show, and then take home their very own ‘bootleg’ of the concert they had just seen,” said Ulrich about selling individual song downloads on LiveMetallica.com. “This technology will enable our fans to get the best possible recording of the show, without having to hold a microphone in the air for the entire night!”

Click here for LiveMetallica.com.