Launched in March 2004, livemetallica.com has enabled fans to purchase and download full live sets of Metallica’s concerts, often within hours of the final encore. After more than 300,000 downloads (and no two set lists the same since the site’s launch more than five years ago), the fans began to clamor for the ability to purchase single tracks from the live sets and Metallica have now obliged.
Single tracks from each and every live show that Metallica have recorded since the web site launched with a Phoenix show on March 2, 2004, are now available for digital download at livemetallica.com for $.99 per track. Full shows can still be downloaded for $9.95, while a high-quality FLAC version of the entire set can be purchased for $12.95. Most shows will be available with hours after they end. Fans can also visit the “Vault” section of the website for free downloads of selected shows prior to 2004.
“This is the next logical step in a process that began back in 1991 when we first implemented the “Taper Section” at our shows, where our fans were encouraged to bring in their own gear to record the show, and then take home their very own ‘bootleg’ of the concert they had just seen,” says Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. “This technology will enable our fans to get the best possible recording of the show, without having to hold a microphone in the air for the entire night!”
Metallica have just launched the second leg of their sold-out World Magnetic Tour in support of their platinum-selling tenth studio album, Death Magnetic, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in September 2008 and won two 2009 Grammy Awards. Of the first leg, the Los Angeles Times raved that the two-hour set “unleashed the powerful exchange of energies that defines Metallica’s purpose and its appeal,” while the New York Post noted that “James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich destroyed any notion that their old bones are ready for the museum by sticking to the three V's of metal music: volume, velocity, and virtuosity.”
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