Without any formal announcement or fanfare, Pink Floyd has recently hit the streaming services including Spotify with 12 rare live albums. All of these document their early ’70s period.
So what are the albums that are now available? Included are They Came in Peace: Leeds University 1970 & Washington University 1971 (Live); Live at Grosser Saal, Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany 25 Feb 1971; Mauerspechte Berlin Sportpalast 5 June 1971 (Live); Live, Lyon 12 June 1971, Tokyo 16 March 1972; Live in Rome Palaeur 20 June 1971; Amsterdamse Bos, Free Concert, Live, 26 June 1971; Live in Montreux 18 & 19 Sept 1971; KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Live 23 Sept 1971; KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Vol II, Live 23 Sept 1971; Over Bradford Pigs on the Groove Bradford University, Live 10 Oct 1971; Embryo, San Diego, Live 17 Oct 1971; and The Screaming Abdabs: Live, Quebec City, 10 Nov 1971. All of the albums boast copyright of Pink Floyd Music Ltd.
The news of the albums only appeared on Twitter in the second week of December, with the band itself not saying anything about the releases. Still, it seems that Pink Floyd took up the similar strategy of other big artists like the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan — all of whom have issued collections as a form of copyright protection, adhering to a 2011 change in European law.
