Marching Music Downloads, RIP

[cixelsyd]

1 hour ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Wasn’t one of the reasons DCI was formed was because there were bootleg recordings being sold and the Corps didn’t get any $ from it?

Corps were paid at least in proportion to what they invested in the efforts of recording and reproduction/distribution.  Prior to 1972, that investment was $0.

[ranintothedoor]

2 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

That’s exactly how I found out about drum corps.  My junior high band director played Fleetwoods of Cabs, Yankee Rebels, and Sky for us. 

As a MS band director, I'm glad you heard about drum corps early.  I make a point to play the kids a video or three throughout the school year and then push attendance to the live DCI show that the high school band goes to hard.  I have 8th graders that marched this year and when I pulled up BAC '25 on Wednesday, they literally started jumping up and down. 

This activity will never die as long as they continue performing... whatever that ends up looking like.  It's too powerful.     

[copyright]

1 hour ago, ranintothedoor said:

As a MS band director, I'm glad you heard about drum corps early.  I make a point to play the kids a video or three throughout the school year and then push attendance to the live DCI show that the high school band goes to hard.  I have 8th graders that marched this year and when I pulled up BAC '25 on Wednesday, they literally started jumping up and down. 

This activity will never die as long as they continue performing... whatever that ends up looking like.  It's too powerful.     

This

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Your point is not trivial.  Over the years, hundreds of thousands of kids have discovered drum corps when their band director played audio/video in the band room.  Now what are their options?

FloMarching is only a live-streaming service, so it is unavailable when kids are in band class.

The only other option is YouTube.  As experience shows, virtually all of the drum corps content on YouTube infringes on one or more copyrights, and only stays there temporarily until (one of) the rights holder(s) requests a takedown.  Soon, when AI agents get involved, those takedowns will come so swiftly that the idea of YouTube as a surrogate drum corps media repository will vanish.

This is a deeply significant loss to the activity.  Doubt this decision was fully thought out.

it's been very thought out. the bottom line is cost. 

[Jeff Ream]

remember this also....DCi had to cut a large six figure check to resolve licensing issues several yesrs ago. they didn't make enough to recoup that payout.

[rjohn76]

I've seen a number of people on social media with their pitch forks ready, calling for the head of Nate Boudreaux since he was heavily quoted in the DCI press release regarding this subject.  The reality is this is what happens when you bring in outside executives, and I say that in a respectful manner. 

An outsider is more likely to place fiduciary responsibility ahead of nostalgia, and be less swayed by pressure to remain complacent with legacy aspects of the business that simply aren't working anymore. While many of us have strong feelings about recordings (video, audio, physical, & digital), if the math isn't working... then it's time re-evaluate.  It's as simple as that, and there's honestly no better person after a year of evaluation/observation to make that call than Nate.  I trust that there's been due diligence done, and that there's no breaks on the horizon with respect to the costs/effort it takes to secure all of the necessary licenses/rights.  And because they're still planning to capture high quality recordings moving forward, if a break does happen... they're positioned to change course as the landscape allows.

[larry333]

I'm just glad I can still get: The Top 24 2025 Drum Corps on CD and video.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2025 by larry333
edit

[jthomas666]

Question--

Is there a way to see how much a corps spends on music licensing for a given year?  Kind of curious as to how much the Blue Devils paid for a few bars of Kashmir.

[IllianaLancerContra]

Money saving suggestion: 2026 - The Year of Public Domain.  
 

As a low brass player I could get behind a Sousa show. 

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, jthomas666 said:

Question--

Is there a way to see how much a corps spends on music licensing for a given year?  Kind of curious as to how much the Blue Devils paid for a few bars of Kashmir.

you could ask. i've never seen it broken out on any financial slides or tax documents