From unofficial to official digital releases of rare material. As part of the band's 40th anniversary celebrations, The Doors are planning on making more than a dozen concert recordings from 1967-1970 available to download from the band's website. Fans will be able to buy whole shows, or pick and mix specific tracks. Among the gigs due to be featured are recordings made at New York's Felt Forum and a 1967 performance at the tiny San Francisco club the Matrix, just a few months after the release of the Doors' first album.
The promotion is being run by Basecamp Productions, who built a similar live music download store for Pearl Jam last year. Basecamp boss Joshua James told Billboard: "Basecamp's entire business model is that these huge bands have all these fans that spend hours online. Why send them off to iTunes to buy music when they want to hang out right there on the band's website?"
The band's 40th birthday will also be marked by the release of a twelve disk box set via Rhino, featuring the band's firsts six studio albums, six DVDs featuring 5.1 remixes, and a whole load of bonus tracks.