it really sucks. in 2000 i loved going to tower records to check out what boots they had just got in. and i loved ordering/finding them online at web sites.

now it's 10 bucks for mp3's. and it's not only that -- if i want good quality i need to pay 15 and go through a process to convert them to itunes format.

am i bitching? yes.

do i think i have a point, though? yes.

i haven't listened to a live pearl jam show past benaroya hall and no full shows since 2003 because of it.

i also loved the 00 boots and would like to see the same method come back. we are on the same side, friend.

i just feel it was so much easier back in 2000-2003. a band that has always wanted to cater to their fans has actually done the opposite of their aimed goal, i feel.

Count me in.

no one has ever made this point before!!!!!!!!!

all my nonsense aside, i agree..

you know what though, i didn't have a problem with it back in late 2005. oh, whatever, it doesn't matter. the tour is months away.

now the tour is on. i want to listen to the shows i went to. different story.

I wish they were doing CDs still too, man, but there's not much (if anything) we can do about it.

Let me tell you, though, that you're missing out on some good shows, even if the quality is lower.

the actual cd quality in 03 was bad, though. if you get some good CD-Rs to burn the FLACs on you'll have a better CD.

and then, after i've bought cd-rs, i've spent like 16-17 bucks on a burned cd with my handwriting in sharpie. it just doesn't feel right to me.

ya, i know and totally agree. it's nice to have a hard, mass-produced product when you spend that much money.

The collector in me really wants to see all those cardboard CD covers lined up in a row. You have to wonder how much lower their CD sales are this time around, compared to 2003.

Count me as another diehard who owns almost all of the 2000 boots, a lot of the 2003 boots, and nothing from then on. The reason? I haven't had my own computer since college, and I graduated in '03. I'm not going to use a bunch of my roommate's or my work computer's disk space to do all that stuff. If I pay for a cd, I want a cd.

I'll be honest. I'm buying the shows I am going to and trading or downloading for the rest. It just seems silly to pay that much for a downloaded product. iTunes for a song is one thing, but for a show some cheaply produced goodies, that's another. Plus, I need to have to listen to Pearl Jam again when they're all done. I bought the whole Canadian/US 2005 in mp3, but I decided unless the show is really special or something, there really isn't anything for me to collect. At least with the CDs, it was collectible and cool.

This just doesn't feel official.

God bless,

Jared

I bought 5 bootlegs from the '05 tour and 2 from this tour so far, and I've only listened to select songs, not the entire shows. It's kind of hard to do that when they're just mp3's sitting on your computer.

I listen to the 2000 boots all the time though.

I agree I would prefer it otherwise. But... I listen to the 05 boots I have nicely burnt on cd all the time.

i disagree

I'm with c_b.

It is nice to have all of the boots on cd in a store, but the problem I found was that most record stores around here had like 2 of the boots (toronto and montréal). The download makes it much easier to get whatever shows you want, regardless of a record store's stock.

Plus at my work we create and duplicate cds and dvds, so I can use the cd artwork and print on the discs and everything