The Day the Music Burned

[asdf1000]

Just now, The Computer Audiophile said:

So cool.

 

It's hinted in the article you linked and also briefly discussed in the video but the studios have a studio at the facility itself, to do digitising of analogue masters, so the masters don't have to leave the facility (risk of damage/theft).

[davide256]

hmmm , any bad actors out there that need to be embarrassed with a go fund me page to better protect their archive?

[PeterSt]

 

Disaster is around the corner again.

[Rt66indierock]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I wonder if there is a major difference between labels that are / aren't public companies that need to hit quarterly numbers for shareholders. 

 

Disorganization is the way things are at labels. No matter the size.  

[james45974]

5 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Some general conclusion - IMO the situation calls for a couple more music formats - MCQA (Master Copy Quality Authenticated), MCCQA (Master Copy Copy..) etc... and finally WTFKWTQA (Who The F..k Knows What's That but we authenticate our file's faithfulness to this source anyway)!   

 

Yes, the fire aftermath has unwittingly made a mockery of MQA hasn't it!

[Hugo9000]

I'm sure BIS doesn't allow their masters to just rot/wait for a fire.  But then, Robert von Bahr's policy of never letting any of his catalogue go out of print means that he has to revisit those recordings in order to reissue them constantly, so his company has to have a constant awareness of the state of their tapes and digital masters.  Hyperion and the other small labels I'm familiar with as a classical consumer have allowed the majority of their catalogues to go out of print, so they are probably in the same boat as the conglomerates, just on a smaller scale.  They should at least have better records of what is where, as they haven't gone through multiple acquisitions by various multinational entities over the decades, unlike the colossal mess of UMG and Warner.

[firedog]

6 hours ago, wgscott said:

Why aren't these recordings, after a certain period of time, deposited with the Smithsonian archives or something like that?  At the very least, they should be digitized at the highest possible fidelity (I am trying to side-step "resolution") and widely mirrored, ideally also made accessible through our country's vibrant and well-maintained public library infrastructure.

Because, as the article notes, the labels are fanatic about protecting intellectual property and copyrights, even though they don’t show the same care for the masters themselves. In other words, “We won’t do what’s best and right, b/c it might compromise our ability to make a small profit at some time in the future”. 

[Jud]

7 hours ago, wgscott said:

Why aren't these recordings, after a certain period of time, deposited with the Smithsonian archives or something like that?  At the very least, they should be digitized at the highest possible fidelity (I am trying to side-step "resolution") and widely mirrored, ideally also made accessible through our country's vibrant and well-maintained public library infrastructure.

 

A small fraction have been donated to the Smithsonian (physical media), with the companies maintaining all commercial rights, of course. (It's in the article, which again is long but really good.) Fear that people will take advantage of free availability is the reason more isn't donated, and what is donated isn't made more widely available.

 

So the companies let stuff rot, without the records to even know what they've got, and hold onto it all like grim death for fear someone else might make a buck off it or listen to it without paying.

[Ralf11]

9 hours ago, firedog said:

Because, as the article notes, the labels are fanatic about protecting intellectual property and copyrights, even though they don’t show the same care for the masters themselves. In other words, “We won’t do what’s best and right, b/c it might compromise our ability to make a small profit at some time in the future”. 

 

We need some legislation to offer them a carrot, if not a stick.  Maybe ensure that they get $$ whenever a copy at the Smithsonian is accessed.  Micro-currencies could make this happen for online copies.  Certainly, being chosen to put something at the Smithsonian is a form of advertising.

[esldude]

2 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

We need some legislation to offer them a carrot, if not a stick.  Maybe ensure that they get $$ whenever a copy at the Smithsonian is accessed.  Micro-currencies could make this happen for online copies.  Certainly, being chosen to put something at the Smithsonian is a form of advertising.

You could call it MAGA.  Making Audio Great Again.  Push it across the presidents desk as the new millennium MAGA act.  He'd sign it.  Seems like it protects corporate profits and has a familiar ring to it.