Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

Thanks for helping to get the word to the powers that be for the download series. Maybe that will encourage some new additions there as well. Theres a few I still need to get. Now that I have had a chance to listen to this release in full, and especially because I'm pretty busy with pther things this summer, I can say that it's a nice sounding release from a popularly traded run of shows. I like hearing the songs as they progressed into real staples in later shows. This is one I'll listen to on occasion but not nearly as often as 1-2 FTVs, Dozin' At The Nick, Nightfall Of Diamonds, Terrapin Limited, Truckin' Up To Buffalo, VFTV I-IV or the vast majority of Dicks Picks and Downloads. Being somewhat of a completionist I'll by them all (except f-ing up and not getting the 10 disc Fillmore box and not having the extra $400+ dollars on hand to get it on EBAY - still bummed about that - maybe someday it'll be reissued in it's entirety).

hoping to have official news for you all soon!

thanks for the hopeful news on the downloads. I am sure everyone appreciates your efforts. As for why people have chosen to sound off in these forums...well isn't it the point that they can share their feelings here and find that many others feel the same way. If that has has created a snowball effect and accelerated changes then this site has proved its worth........and the flipside of having had to deal with all this crap is that you get to make a lot of people very happy!!!

Thanks for Billy's drum solo on disc 2 of 3FTV ... it was awesome! "From day to day, just lettin' it ride, You get so far away from how it feels inside, You can't let go, 'cause you're afraid to fall, But the day may come when you can't feel at all."

We'll keep you posted! Honest! Of course then it'll be "The download server's overloaded!" But we will get by!

thanks for the good news - sorry to come off sounding so... er un-Grateful. to many hard core GD music collectors (u know the ones who have > 5 terabytes of lossless files archived on HD with SBD, schoeps, beyers, naks, akgs from multiple shows), this move smacked of the ongoing downward spiral of bitrate/sound quality that is permeating the music "industry". the GD have always embraced improvements in sound and on the leading edge using HDCD encoding and DVD-A releases and it was disheartening to have the lossless files yanked and then seeing that the only option is lossy AAC. seemed like more of the same. i've got a couple of hundred bucks itching to blow on some GD downloads and i don't even own an ipod.

Friends and neighbors, while it would be premature to say that your prayers and entreaties have been answered, it's certainly safe to say that they've inspired urgent prioritization and help is on the way. In response to this morning's batch of pleas, the word from our pals at the Store is, essentially, this: 1. The Download Series will return to the Store real soon now. 2. It was never the intention for it to go away; it just sort of slipped down the list due to the bazillion other issues involved in launching the new site. 3. Thanks to your many comments, there is now no doubt in anyone's mind that this is an urgently desired offering, and it's risen to the top of the priority sort. We will have more definite news shortly, but we thought you'd like to know this now!

Izzie and I are passing this stuff to the Store folks religiously. After all, this whole grand experiment has to be economically sustainable or it won't last, which would be a drag, and it's likeliest to be economically sustainable if there's a good supply of what people want to buy. Hardly the day passes that one or the other of us is not forwarding more posts or emails in support of the notion that people want the downloads back and they want 'em lossless. That said, a couple of things: 1. Izzie's right that it does no harm to make these same points to the store directly. 2. At a certain level, given the transitions involved, it's a flippin' miracle that six weeks from rollout things are working as well as they are. Recognizing this point does not detract from the point that things are not as they should be, and I think it's safe to say everyone involved is working on it, at least within my virtual field of vision. Everyone I've talked with at Rhino has a strong interest in making this work right, and I think there's a growing realization that substantive issues of this sort matter more than bells and whistles right now. So, we feel your pain, but please realize that Terrapin was not built in a day. (And no, this is not an announcement about the Terrapin Station project, which as far as I know is still on indefinite hiatus.)

i didn't have any fun venting here and i'm still pissed that i can't PURCHASE something that was available a few weeks back. what point is there to even having a store anymore if the official GD website doesn't have everything that is available. just seems weird - at a time when there are THOUSANDS of free gd downloads, people are CLAMMERING to purchase recordings and yet, they are taken down. bass-ackwards. thanks rhino and itunes for further eroding deadheads ability to enjoy their beloved band.

I am going to have to not read this topic in the morning anymore. It just pisses me off. I get yelled at often enough at my dayjob for things that are beyond my control.... Look, we're frustrated too, okay? But there is nothing we can do for you, with regard to the store, that really, you can't do for yourselves. Here is the email address, yet again, for the store people. customerservice@deadnetstore.com I know that's not as fun as letting off steam here, but if you want to blast the people in charge, there's your sign. They may not provide you the immediate gratification that MaryE and I seem to provide in this outlet, but at least you'll be heard. And creating a record of discontent where it matters makes more sense to me than just venting over here. Thanks for listening. izzie