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Media: Should we start hoarding?

Doubtless you’ve heard of the catastrophic loss of thousands of master recordings
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

What occurs to me as I’m sitting here listening to “Monk: Straight No Chaser” is that a LOT of recordings we are listening to today can never be re-released or remastered. The ONLY way to make new versions/re-releases  is to use copies...

It got me to consider upping my music budget and buying everything I can made either from the original master or recently remastered. 


128x128musicfan2349
musicfan2349's avatar
musicfan2349 OP
245 posts
 
Thanks @elizabeth 
I suppose you're right. I don't have near that many LPs, CD, etc. but the prospect of even doubling what I have is... daunting.

Thanks all for providing perspective.

Cheers,
Ed
flatblackround's avatar
flatblackround
279 posts
 
Good advice from elizabeth.  She has stopped hoarding records and switched to hoarding butcher blocks.   
bpoletti
1,556 posts
 
I have a local friend that recently passed away.  I don't know exactly how many records he left, but estimate 10,000 or more.  His children are burdened with finding new owners for the records.  They don't want to just give them away since it's a sizable investment.  But it's hard to find interested buyers.  

The estate sale was a disaster.  A "vulture" tried to buy bulk records for a few cents each.  Literally.  Fortunately, the heirs thwarted his efforts but are still stuck with the records.  

I will probably weed out a thousand or so.  They will have a a special place in my collection.  That will help.  If the children can sell a couple more thousand, then can comfortably donate the rest to the local book sales and move on with life.  

The moral of the story is to not be a burden to those we leave behind.  
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wally1966's avatar
wally1966
2 posts
 
This is not an old NYT article. The extent of what was lost just came to light. I agree with you to some extent. Many recordings done direct from master like Analogue Productions just went WAY up In value. For example, the Doors limited edition Infinite set from master tape to analogue, those can’t be redone. If those tapes were lost those records are now irreplaceable.

On our collections ending up in a dumpster, yeah. If it’s a bunch of crap. I just bought a few boxes of records at an estate sale and it turns they are all first pressing records going for hundreds each. One Lee Morgan record (Candy) is valued at around 2k. The value is there is you’re looking to invest wisely.

 I think picking up recordings direct from master is always a break even proposition if you buy wisely. What was lost in that fire is gone. And this new info just coming to light. Not some old NYT article as people who didn’t bother to read it say. It’s disgraceful what happened. America’s history and culture burned and gone
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