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Master recordings of music and other performance from which retail products are derived, typically in multiple tracks and uncompressed high-resolution sound quality |
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Group: Sound and Vision |
Trend: New Entry |
Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 |
Last update: 2019 |
Previous category: New Entry |
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Imminence of Action Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world. |
Effort to Preserve It would require a small effort to address losses in this group, requiring the application of proven preservation tools or techniques. |
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Examples Master recordings owned by music industry |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions Single point of failure; storage on old or degrading media; lack of ongoing investment in changing preservation requirements; lack of capability; poor documentation; dependence on small staff |
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‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice High quality storage; meticulous and consistent replication; trusted repository; preservation requirement understood at executive level and funded accordingly; leadership in preservation community; expert staff |
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2019 Review This entry has been split out of the previous entry for ‘Digital Music Production and Sharing’ though it has overlaps with other entries. It is a separate entry to emphasise the inherent and very great value of master recordings over and above those distributed, and the concomitant need for active preservation. The Jury were particularly aware of the case of the ‘Universal Fire’ of 2008 which has only recently been reported widely. |
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Additional Jury Comments The archival practices of the studios are typically based on value - the recordings are assumed to be worth keeping. However, this means relatively low-value masters may not be transferred to new media in a timely way and could be lost. There is no comprehensive deposit scheme to address the long-tail of music production, and it is often unclear exactly where responsibility lies. |
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