The Importance of Sound Recording Preservation
According to a story on variety.com , efforts to preserve sound recordings are met by a "perplex" of issues preventing effective archiving. Kudos for the great nounification of 'perplex.' A recent study by the Council on Library and Information Resources "lays the groundwork for the National Recording Preservation Plan that was mandated under the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 and will be published by the Library of Congress later in 2010." [ full text of the Act ]. As a longtime musician, I hated to see the unfortunate yet crucial discussion of the destruction or neglect of physical masters. Contributing factors include the prioritization of resources and attention, costs, corporate mergers and organizational issues, and small labels now out of business. The report also discusses the efforts of private collectors to preserve recordings while expressing concern over the decentralization and inconsistent quality of such efforts...