one lonely success

Earlier in June, Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds, and Trey Anastacio (from Phish fame) participated in the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival. There set was awesome and I was jazzed to hear that the set could be downloaded in MP3 format or in a loss-less digital format (for you audiophiles).  Yesterday, I took the plunge and plunked down $12.95 for the right to download the two-disc, 22-song set.  Initially, I was nervous about the quality of the recordings (this was afterall a live show).  However, as soon as iTunes started playing the first few seconds of Track 1 my mind was at ease.  The sound quality is great, the recordings are crystal-clear and all of Dave’s quirks and comments are captured beautifully. 

After purchasing the downloads, you are taken to the downloads section where you can either chose to have the entire concert downloaded automatically or you can manually download each track. (I chose the latter.) Now, let’s talk DRM.  How restricted are these tracks?  Thankfully, the only restrictions you have at livebonnaroo.com is that you have to download everything in 48 hours, afterwhich you cannot access your purchase. Reasonable enough, eh?  Once you’ve downloaded the music, you can copy it to your portable device, burn it to CD as many times as you like or transfer it to other computers.  Essentially, there is no DRM and that is a good thing.

Another nice touch is that each download comes with custom CD Art, booklet, tray inlay and CD labels.  Overall, the experience was perfect and exactly what purchasing music off the internet should be about.  If you’re not into Dave Matthews, that’s cool.  Livebonnaroo.com has music by String Cheese Incident, My Morning Jacket, Soulive, etc. all available for purchase/download.

So, if you’re a Dave fan, I can’t recommend the Live at Bonnaroo downloads more. Take a look at the setlist and then purchase a copy of the concert in support of Bonnaroo!