I guess this part could be fuzzy. It's not as if Dime has tons of time to check every upload and personally confirm permission from the performers, any more than musicians have time to track every place a recording might be distributed. That's not to mention that people share recordings going back decades and there's a shit-ton by artists who are dead now. But if there are any remaining opposite-of-Spotify outlets that still genuinely care about respecting artists' wishes and copyrights, this is one of 'em. They aren't making money off anyone's work or undercutting musicians by copying/pirating material that's meant to be sold. Hell, more often than not sometimes, the recordings are muddy enough to push you to seek out the real things for quality alone.
I don't think copyright applies to songs themselves, just recordings. Is hearing a torrent of a cover band much different from hearing some local band cover something in person at the bar? Neither one needs written permission just to play a song live.
Dime was the first place I heard the Toy Matinee 5-1-91 show, just to pick an example familiar to this board. I don't remember whether it was a boot of the soundboard or a duplicate audience tape, but it was the reason I jumped to buy the official CD as soon as it was available. Yes, I know we who only buy legit are in a dwindling minority, but nycsteve is right that this at helps lead to sales that otherwise might not happen. There's plenty of stuff the artists want to distribute that wouldn't have as much of an outlet to be heard through less-known channels. Gray areas and all, I think this is a case where the benefits do outweigh the inevitable imperfections.
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