Master Release Policy
Last updated 2026-04-14
I've been thinking a bit about why I record shows. And what I'm coming up with is that it's because I care about the archival and preservation of theater. As tempting as it may be, I do not want my reasoning to become "I want clout in the bootlegging community and want to be the next big master". I do not want to make money off of it. I do not want this to be an easier or cheaper way to see a show than making a trip to NYC. I'm doing this for the love of theater and ensuring that the art on stage is available when there is no longer any way for it to be experienced live. To that end, my policy on releasing recordings I have made is that they will only become available once a similar performance can no longer be experienced live. In most cases, that would probably mean a show closing, though it might also mean things like cast changes. Ultimately this is semi-subjective and will be decided on a per-recording basis, but the overarching idea is that performances which can still be experienced live should be experienced live.
I understand that this policy may seem a bit dismissive of the accessibility argument for bootlegs, which is not my intention. However, since this is (for good reason) mostly an online community, there's no way to know people's real-life situations; and even if there were, it's not my place to make judgements about whether or not someone is personally able to experience a show live. So when there is a tension between accessibility and a performance still being able to be experienced live, I will err on the side of saying the performance is still able to be experienced live. This is offset somewhat since there are still other masters filming/audio recording these same shows and releasing on a more regular basis.
There are some recordings I released before instating this policy which, under the policy, are not eligible for release. Of course, I cannot "rescind" those releases. These recordings may still be traded as normal, but there will not be any future releases of recordings which are ineligible for release based on this policy.