Bootlegging for the Better: Livestreams and the Music Industry

As online presence has continued to become a more important aspect of everyday, it has become a norm in American Culture to share every aspect of life, including concert attendance. While artists expressed distaste in the past for recording at concerts, there has been a shift by musicians to acceptance of recording at concerts, sometimes being an important form of cheap promotion. Artists that do continue to express distaste for concerts being shared on social media have turned to non-legal remedies to solve their problem. Although there is a remedy available to artists for the livestreaming of concerts through the anti-bootlegging provisions, these provisions are not currently providing meaningful protection. This note explores the different options that the legislature could take to update the anti-bootlegging provisions to address livestreaming of live musical performances, and how each option would affect artists and their fans.