Pink Floyd Unexpectedly Drops Live Album Collection from 1972 'Dark Side of the Moon' Era [LISTEN]

Pink Floyd discreetly and unexpectedly released a collection of live albums from their "Dark Side of the Moon" era in 1972 to avoid losing the rights to their songs.

This has been done by several other European bands and acts, and this phenomenon is apparently called "copyright dumping," thanks to a vaguely-defined European Union Law.

According to Variety, European bands and acts have to drop unreleased recordings before it turns 50 years old, or they will lose their rights to them.

Pink Floyd had already previously released several concert recordings, and this year is no different.

18 concert recordings from 1972, during their tour before the release of their eighth studio album, "Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973, were released onto streaming services.

According to reports, the newly dropped live collections include the band's four-night run at the Rainbow Theatre in London, their show at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and three shows in Japan.

A compilation called "Alternate Tracks 1972" was also released alongside the live collections. It will reportedly house several remixes of their hit songs like "Time" and "On the Run."

Other shows with stops in Germany, France, Belgium, and Switzerland are included in the live collections.

'Copyright Dump'

Pink Floyd is not the only famous band or act to "copyright dump" their unreleased recordings; in fact, other artists have been doing the same thing for years now.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan are just among the many artists who have dumped several unreleased materials to avoid losing their rights to their music.

Most of these artists release their music discreetly, without any fanfare or statements, and by all accounts, these releases are not regular album releases.

These are songs that have been put on the back burner, and for some, it has racked up to 50 or so songs.

The Beatles' "Bootleg Recordings 1963" has seen 59 songs, which consist of radio sessions or studio outtakes.

Dylan's "Copyright Collections" was released before it reached its 50th year, and was sold as a box set.

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone's unreleased music was dropped via YouTube for only 24 hours and included about 75 songs.

Reports note that these songs are kept in the artists' vaults for various reasons. It could be that they just were not good enough to be included in the official multi-disc compilations, or were simply radio sessions or studio outtakes.

But for one reason or the other, the artists could not part with the songs, and had to keep their rights to the songs, thus the "copyright dump."

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Pink Floyd, Album