Bootlegs and secret recording

I must admit that I absolutely hate it when I see an audience member recording the show or taking photos as people have paid so much money to see it properly! It's also annoying to just see them texting or checking Twitter!! I must admit, though, that I have watched videos of shows on YouTube. For example, there are loads of videos of just songs from the London production of Legally Blonde and as I never got to see it and it's closed now, watching these videos are so great! Is that bad?

But the show is closed now so it's not like I could pay to go and see it, because trust me I'd pay so much to see her in that show again. If it is on YouTube then I can't ignore it? It's not just LB but different shows just have clips of songs, even you said you've seen some.

No of course I don't, I never said that did I? Your being abit hypocritical by having a go at me but saying you do the same? Hmmm, okay then. It's a way of seeing something that was on when I didn't go to the theatre

I assume you meant xtube

If you're going to record a show (be it audio or video), at least do it without distracting anyone in the theatre.

That's my rule.

I'm quite lucky I guess that I'm a play person and not a musical person, since so many plays end up being broadcast. I am aware of a black market in Shakespeare bootlegs but it doesn't seem to be a thing in the way illicit YT recordings of musicals is.

I'm not sure what to think about the issue. When I was (much) younger, at the dawn of the internet time when 56k dial-up was very much a thing and youtube not even a theoretical possibility I did own and watch a couple of video bootlegs. I was a teenager/student who poured all her pocket money into seeing musicals live and yet I'd ALSO watched them at home and was glad to "own" them in a way. Often it was a memory of a show I had seen myself, curiosity about performers I couldn't see live or the sheer impossibility to see certain shows, for example when they were on Broadway.

Ironically now that an awful lot is available on youtube, I can't even be bothered to find and watch anything there. I do take advantage (when I can) of seeing NT Live screenings and such at the cinema, own quite a few legal DVDs of shows filmed on stage (like Rent or Memphis on Broadway) and I spent all of this afternoon watching "She Loves me" legally on BroadwayHD for $9.99. It never occured to me to even go looking for a bootleg of this but I was thrilled when it was announced because I'm quite a big fan of Zachary Levi since his "Chuck" days and would have loved to see him in this. But I can't just jet over to New York whenever I feel like it.

Anyway, to come to the point - I see the problem with youtube, since whoever records the show in question illegally makes money from every viewing and that's wrong. Same as "traders" back in the day that would sell copies of their illegal bootlegs.

But I do wonder how much the "industry" suffers from the mere existance. It's my feeling that most people who go looking for bootlegs are hardcore fans who have seen the show live already or simply have no possibility to see it live (and would still do so, when given a chance). Look at Hamilton for example - I was lucky enough to see it live last summer before the hype got totally insane, but I can't blame anyone who loves the CD and can't afford the ludicrous prices on Broadway (especially when you include travel cost) to look for other resources in order to match the music to visuals. Some may be content with a crappy bootleg but I'm sure that most would still buy tickets whenever Hamilton comes to their home town or prices on Broadway become reasonable again.

I really think that the best way to curb the bootlegging would be to offer more shows by streaming such as She Loves Me now, showing them on television like Imelda's Gypsy and/or releasing them on DVD - at least once the actual run has ended and there's no risk of people not buying tickets anymore because they could buy the stream.

I haven't touched any bootlegs for about 20 years now and I don't want to sound like I encourage the practice, but I still have some sympathy for teenage-me for who terrible VHS bootlegs in awful quality were often the only chance to see something at all or to have a treasured keepsake of my favorite shows.

I don't agree that the people who go looking for bootlegs are hardcore fans who've already paid. Some may be, but I know of quite a few people whose response to something being available is "Where can I get a bootleg?", and many of them are quite proud of themselves for taking without putting anything back. Some try to justify what they're doing by saying they're providing support, though it doesn't seem to occur to them that support doesn't pay the bills and if they're not spending money then in commercial terms they don't exist. Many don't even do that: they simply don't see a reason for paying for anything unless they're forced to.

As far as audience recordings are concerned, I know many performers hate them because they have no say over the quality of the performance. They might be having a bad day or stumble over something, and then a performance they're not proud of gets shared all around the world.

Idina Menzel has been quite vocal about how it frustrates her that there is an audio in circulation of a really terrible show she had. She really does sound awful in that clip of Defying Gravity (to the point that I question why she didn't call out that night- she sounded really sick).

But I know from my end- it's usually the only way to hear certain actors in certain roles, and I get to see so many shows I wouldn't have if it weren't for boots. I've not been doing it as much recently (just got tired of the poor quality, and find my ways to see theatre live [saving alot of money for travel]) but in the past I found great joy in them, and knew I'd find a way to support the creators some other way.

I know some choose to view something for free and not pay for anything at all- I have to wonder what's the percentage of those people are and if they actually make a dent in the theatre world's income. If there was no boot, if they'd pay money to see the production live.

Many shows have got my money from seeing clips and recordings on youtube as they have then made me want to see it/the performer and so Ive bought a ticket.

Also i rather doubt i'd be interested in theatre now if it was for those types of videos as there were several years where that's all i relied on rather than actually going to the theatre. It's through seeing clips and such that got me started, not family or friends taking me to see shows from a young age.

I gave up Sky TV a couple of weeks ago.... no, it's fine... I'm doing ok *takes slug of gin to stop hand trembling* and as a result of saving that£45 a month was considering subscribing to Netflix again. I had a look to see what they're showing in terms of musicals and it's absolutely dire. If there was a decent resource for this stuff maybe people wouldn't bother with bad quality vids on YouTube.

I don't think putting shows online would stop bootlegging, people will still record it on their phones as some don't want to pay money to see actual live theatre but it might reduce it but given the costs involving for something like Miss Saigon or Billy Elliot the latter had Universal Pictures behind it and many producers probably don't want to record a show as it can potentially be revived at a later date. It's likely the reason why concert versions of shows like Les Mis, Phantom etc are recorded but not the shows themselves. 

I'm always amazed when i see bootleg recordings of shows from years back. Back then, video recorders were huge sit on the shoulder things, how did they get them in/get away with it??