What the heck does RoIO stand for?
“RoIO” is an acronym for a ‘Recordings of Independent Origin”, a term first popularized in Pink Floyd trading circles around the turn of the century to refer to unofficial, unreleased recordings that were freely traded from fan to fan. SInce that time, other trading communities have adopted it to describe any non-commercial, fan-made recording, and while the precise legal status of a RoIo remains difficult to pin down, it is generally accepted that RoIOs are legal provided they are not sold, and provided they consist of material otherwise unavailable through commercial channels. Most of the major music trading communiites (i.e. Dime, Trader’s Den, Zomb, Pure Live Gigs, Hunger City et al) follow a RoIO-based, artist-friendly trade policy that allows for the free trading of any non-commercial material but respects requests by artists to have their work removed from a site tracker upon request. At RockPeaks, we follow the same policy.
