A brief explanation on the best methods of distributing unreleased material.

These questions and answers will address how to distribute boots through physical media.

What is a CD-R (or DVD-R, FLAC, etc.) tree?

It is a simple way of getting higher quality recordings to a greater number of people. This especially works better with a newer recording that hasn't been in circulation that long (or, at all). But despite the fact that a tree is a "win-win" situation for everybody involved, it takes a bit of organization to successfully work.

First off, a seed is needed. The seed is either the "master" tape (DVD, CD-R, or whatever the source media is), or a direct copy of it. Once the seed is offered to start a tree with, an administrator must organize and run the tree.

The person who actually starts the tree with the seed is called a root. The administrator may or may not be the root; if he isn't, it's up to him to find someone to volunteer to be the root. It then becomes the root's responsibility to dub the first copies of the seed.

After the root is found, people must volunteer to be the branches or leaves of the tree. The root will record copies (usually five in number) for the people "below" him/her on a tree, who are called branches. The branches, in turn, record and send five copies of the show(s) to other branches, and they record five copies, and so on. The people at the very end of the branches are called leaves. If you are a leaf, you can either send blanks (2:1 rate) or work out a trade with your branch for other shows if you have a trade list and are able to make copies.

What is a vine?

It is similar to a tree, but the original master disc (seed) gets passed from individual to individual (after each person has recorded one copy for themselves) until it gets mailed back to the root, or originator of the master disc. Vines are also known as chains.

What is a weed?

This is closer to a tree than a vine is, but in a weed the original disc gets passed to one individual who makes two to five copies and send them out to others (usually the first 3 to 5 respondents to a weed offer) with the stipulation that those receiving the show also offer it back to the list in a reasonable amount of time. Those people make two to five copies and send them out. You receive the discs without having sending anything back to the person who sent them to you but you agree that you will send out at least two copies. The advantage of a weed over a tree is that weeds are "quick and dirty"; they are relatively easy to set up and can proliferate throughout a small circle of traders rather quickly. Weeds usually work better than trees when speed is an issue.