On the idea of a "trading mafia", and why some unreleased music stays hidden

On the recent regretfully closed After Earth recording sessions thread, some members were expressing frustration at the idea that anyone would choose to "not allow" the public to have access to their unreleased materials, even if it was legitimately possessed by someone who kindly wanted to share, like Number 112. I just wanted to clear up why this might be, so you can understand how things work better, and know better what to expect in the future. I will add that I am not an insider and nothing I say is guaranteed to be accurate in every or any situation. I’m not an insider, I am merely speaking from many conversations I’ve had with various collectors, and my experiences of half a lifetime of passionate collecting.

There are two main reasons why unreleased music is not shared publicly. The more selfish of the two reasons is that the first obtainers of any unreleased score are likely to have paid a price for said score, whether in actual money (promos on eBay as well as more clandestine transactions), or trading another rare score for it. This latter may not sound like much of a "price", but any additional exposure of rare material risks dropping its value, because it’s hard to know who you can trust not to leak to the public unless you know the people you’re trading with REALLY well. So, when a collector feels like they paid a high price for an unreleased score, whether from spending $500 (vague example) or from trading another rare score and thus risking the lessening of its value, they very badly don’t want that score to be released publicly. Because then they would feel like they paid that price for nothing. This has happened to me at least once…and it’s not a nice feeling at all, and that wasn’t even with a very large sum of money. I can’t imagine what it would be like to pay hundreds of dollars for a score and then see it on the shrine a few weeks later. You would feel like a dumbass. I am not saying this is an admirable way to go about things, but we’re all bending/breaking copyright laws here so I’m not sure how much you can judge anyone for having a different morality about illegal activities than those of us who (like me) would like to see everything freely shared.

Reason #2 is far more practical and is the one I hope would be behind most instances of "not sharing." That reason is that it’s not easy to get this material, and the people who are getting the material could easily get in trouble for doing it. Since we know the record companies are watching this site (and why wouldn’t they? I wish all scores would be released legally in their full complete form, but they have the legal right to do with the material what they want), we can also deduce that if they see newer material for big-budget films showing up on this site, they’re going to be tighter about security, and the sources are going to dry up. No one here wants that, so it’s not entirely logical to get all worked up about recent recording sessions not being shared. It’s not because people are mean and selfish and want to keep all your (ear) candy for themselves. For a newer score like this, it’s very likely that they’re simply trying to respect the record company’s and studios interests and protect their own network. Leaks from newer big-budget movies are dangerous and potentially harmful; the recent leak of Man of Steel recording sessions was quite dangerous for the person who originally leaked it and he/she may or may not be able to leak any more scores from that studio ever again.

So it’s better to wait. Traders will generally feel less possessive of a score after a few years, and the record companies will stop caring very much about the scores to old movies because there’s little to no money in it anymore, unless its a perennial favorite (which is why we have never and will probably never get Star Wars sessions, booooo). Maybe After Earth will appear in a few years, maybe it won’t, but demanding it and attacking/criticizing the people who aren’t sharing it is DEFINITELY not going to help anything. Be patient, there is always more new music than you can possibly have time to listen to anyway. Sure, there are some selfish traders who are only out for their own interests and very badly don’t want the "peasants" like us to have access to "their" music. But I believe those are the exception rather than the rule, and most of the "not a trading mafia" is simply trying to keep things on the down-low and be smart about their activities, so we don’t piss off the record companies too much, and so legitimate releases continue to come out and make money. I think it’s always better to be kind to people and think the best of them when possible, so I submit this opinion just as a counter to and explanation for the idea that there’s an inner circle of insiders keeping all the good stuff locked away. It’s not entirely untrue, but it’s definitely not that simple!

If there is a better place to put this thread where it would still be seen by users of the soundtrack forum, please move it there; otherwise I just wasn’t sure where to put it. Thanks for reading 🙂

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Kylani. This was an interesting read, and very insightful.

the recent leak of Man of Steel recording sessions was quite dangerous for the person who originally leaked it and he/she may or may not be able to leak any more scores from that studio ever again.

This is bs, those responsible for leaking MoS are doing fine.

Double post.

On the recent regretfully closed After Earth recording sessions thread, some members were expressing frustration at the idea that anyone would choose to "not allow" the public to have access to their unreleased materials, even if it was legitimately possessed by someone who kindly wanted to share, like Number 112.

Apparently he never had it at all; who knows if that’s true or not though.

The more selfish of the two reasons is that the first obtainers of any unreleased score are likely to have paid a price for said score, whether in actual money (promos on eBay as well as more clandestine transactions), or trading another rare score for it.

Why is it selfish to want to keep what you’ve paid for to yourself for a little while?

the recent leak of Man of Steel recording sessions was quite dangerous for the person who originally leaked it and he/she may or may not be able to leak any more scores from that studio ever again.

You mean mgm and/or DAK? They’re actually well off, or so I hear.

You mean mgm and/or DAK? They’re actually well off, or so I hear.

I’m doing ok. I’m surviving, anyway. As far as I know, no one’s out ta get me :p

except megatron….

http://share.gifyoutube.com/vWN7VO.gif

This is what happen when something big is leaked :

https://media.giphy.com/media/9cbDzc591MSLm/giphy.gif

Mafia reaction :

https://media.giphy.com/media/ObXgWWGHzMlVe/giphy.gif

FFShrine people reaction :

https://media.giphy.com/media/xXud4DaGlJoRy/giphy.gif

Leaker reaction :

https://media.giphy.com/media/PhHinD8ir6Gre/giphy.gif

I’ve always imagined the leaker reaction more as the turtles in this clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymFDtbk2teE). :laugh:

lol