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Deadheads can now stream around 300 concert recordings – many of them for the first time ever on a streaming platform. This is made possible by Play Dead, a subscription service on Nugs. As “Billboard” reports, the service cooperates with Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino Entertainment and offers high-resolution audio for numerous legendary concerts. The collaboration started with 20 previously unreleased archive recordings and has no influence on the band’s physical releases via Rhino.
The idea has a long history: The Grateful Dead had already worked with Nugs founder and CEO Brad Serling on a similar project called Project Bandwagon in 2000, but it was never realized at the time. Interim technological developments – high-speed streaming, iPhones, etc. – eventually paved the way for collaborations with Rhino and Dead archivist David Lemieux. Together they began digitizing multitrack tapes, reel-to-reels and DAT cassettes. “What we’re embarking on now is the largest tape transfer project in the history of rock & roll – as far as I know, at least for a single band,” Serling told Billboard.
According to Lemieux, the reason for the long start-up time is quality control. As Billboard notes, there are around 2,300 unique Dead bootlegs circulating. The Play Dead team mastered them so that they sound significantly better than cassettes that have been overdubbed thousands of times. “This isn’t a ‘quick transfer and get out,'” Lemieux emphasized. The minimum resolution for audio on the platform is 24 bit and 48 kHz – far superior to a traditional CD.
More than just archives
According to the creators, other advantages of Play Dead include curated selections by Lemieux, the ability to create your own playlists, and a user-friendly interface that is intended to make the Dead’s otherwise confusing back catalog navigable. In addition, unlike the previous archive releases, which always included complete concerts, Play Dead will also offer partial recordings.
“This is the closest thing you can get to the recording that was in the room with the band at the time – other than the band members themselves and those who may still be alive,” Serling told Billboard. “This is the last living relic of what was in the room with the band on a given night – and we are creating a high-resolution digital recording of it.”
The announcement follows a series of tributes to the Dead following the death of guitarist Bob Weir. John Mayer, who played lead guitar alongside Weir in Dead & Company, started a weekly listening party for Dead fans on Sirius XM. And actress Chloë Sevigny has started production on a film about Deadheads.
