The Classical music world is filled with the most horrendous copyright problems. And egos - you don't want to know. I guess that a huge number of recordings sitting in broadcasters' vaults are unusable - not because the tape has expired, but that the recording was made on the basis of a single broadcast and an "expiry" date for repeats. So it is interesting to see videos of quite a few classical music performances appearing on Youtube. The audio is far from perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. Digital recordings in the last 10 years have a problem - they don't deteriorate. So record companies are loathed to re-record works just for the sake of a slightly different interpretation. And unless public archives, paid for by the taxpayer, have the rights to use what they keep, they might as well throw the recording away. How about national erasure day to free up shelf space for artists who are proud and pleased that past performances will be used again.
One should not necessarily assume that broadcasters keep such unusable stuff. I'm aware of a routine check of concert recordings at some station. Rights expired? Tape will be erased. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you're right. If you want to change an archive into a proper content house, you will have to rethink the current archive system at many stations...they were set up when storage costs were expensive and tape needed to be recycled. Is the station you're thinking of in Germany or perhaps Eastern Europe?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Kai,