OBSCURED BY CLOUD-BASED STREAMING SERVICES: Pink Floyd Quietly Put 18 Unreleased ‘Dark Side’-Era Concerts on Streaming Services.
In what’s becoming an annual tradition, Pink Floyd quietly uploaded 18 Dark Side of the Moon-era concerts onto streaming services recently, as well as a collection of “alternative tracks” from their legendary 1973 LP.
In Dec. 2021, Pink Floyd similarly dumped a dozen unreleased concerts, spanning from 1970 to 1972, on streaming services without any fanfare; artists like Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan have employed this tactic in the past in order to extend the rights of the recordings.
In 2013, a rep for Sony explained Dylan’s release of uncirculated music by telling Rolling Stone, “The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 to 70 years for everything recorded in 1963 and beyond. With everything before that, there’s a new ‘Use It or Lose It’ provision. It basically said, ‘If you haven’t used the recordings in the first 50 years, you aren’t going to get any more.’”
The 18 concerts — none of which have been released in any official capacity — span from Jan. 23, 1972 to Dec. 9, 1972, with Pink Floyd workshopping, fine-tuning and then perfecting The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety at every show ahead of its March 1973 release. Pink Floyd’s entire four-night stand at London’s Rainbow Theatre from Feb. 17 to 20, 1972 is also available for streaming.
More details here: Pink Floyd Quietly Releases 18 ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ Era Concerts Onto Streaming Services.
The concerts are a bit tricky to find on streaming services and probably will not be available for long; last year’s batch were removed after a few weeks but can still be found on YouTube. On Spotify, look under “albums,” then “compilations,” click “show all” and scroll way down (assuming you don’t feel like searching for titles like “Pink Floyd Live at the Palais des Sports de L’Ile de la Jatte, Saint Ouen, France, 01 Dec 1972”).
Although this realm is most definitely not a place for casual fans, it’s fascinating to hear “Dark Side of the Moon” played in its entirely for totally unfamiliar audiences before it became Dark Side of the F**king Moon, and imagining being among the first people on earth to have their minds blown by it.
Pink Floyd uploaded some of the tracks from the live concerts at YouTube — but doesn’t appear to embed them in their main YouTube homepage, but searching under the titles in the first Rolling Stone link will bring them up.