NEW YORK (Billboard) - As part of the Doors‘ 40th-anniversary celebration, the band will soon make 12 concerts from 1967 to 1970 available for download from its Web site, TheDoors.com.
Fans will be able to choose favorites from the quartet‘s performances, many of which are previously unreleased, rather than having to buy a complete show.
The initiative is powered by Basecamp Productions, which built Pearl Jam‘s successful concert download store last year.
Elektra released the Doors‘ first album in January 1967. The extensive anniversary slate includes a comprehensive 12-disc boxed set (due this fall via Rhino) as well as reissues, merchandise and an interactive Las Vegas attraction, targeted to open in 2008. A traveling Doors memorabilia exhibit also is in the works, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit will open in April 2007.
In addition, a documentary film is on tap, along with a summer 2007 multi-night TV special ("Six Nights, Six Years, Six Records") and a pair of coffee-table books ("The Doors by the Doors With Ben Fong-Torres" and "Jim Morrison: Treasures" by Rock Hall curator Jim Henke).
A specific date has not yet been set for the concert downloads.
"These huge bands have all these fans that spend hours online," Basecamp principal Joshua James says. "Why send them off to iTunes to buy music when they want to hang out right there on the band‘s Web site?"
Reuters/Billboard
