Guest Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/digitizing_music_history_john_peels_65000_vinyl_re.php When it comes to the history of modern popular music, the importance of the late radio DJ John Peel can hardly be overstated. During his nearly 40-year tenure at the BBC, Peel welcomed hundreds of artists in the studio to record Peel Sessions, from legendary classic rock acts and Grammy winners to under-the-radar indie bands in the late 90s. When he died in 2004, Peel had himself reached legendary status. As you can imagine, he amassed quite a record collection over the years. In total, Peel owned over 25,000 vinyl LPs and 40,000 vinyl singles. Before long, we'll all be able to browse his collection on the Web, according to the BBC. The records will be scanned and digitized along with other personal notes from Peel, interviews, videos and other content. It will be hosted online in coordination with The Space, an experimental digital arts platform created by the BBC and the Arts Council England. The end result will be a sort of interactive museum through which people around the world can peruse Peel's record collection and learn more about his life's work. Whether or not the music itself will be digitized isn't clear, but in any event, it will likely not be made publicly available due to complex and costly copyright licensing limitations. This is the kind of thing that seems ripe for integration with services like Spotify and Soundcloud, if not digital music stores like iTunes or Amazon's MP3 marketplace. What may be more feasible, as the BBC points out, is access to some of the Peel Sessions archives. That audio won't cover his entire collection, but given the list of artists that recorded in Peel's studio at the BBC, there's an enormous trove of potential content there. This project is just the latest one that aims to preserve musical history by digitizing it. Last month, Universal Music donated over 200,000 masters, discs and tapes to the Library of Congress. The collection, which contains music from the first half of the twentieth century, is the single largest donation of its kind in history. Digitizing older music is seen as imperative because of the deterioration of physical media that happens over time. John Peel's LPs may not be at risk of crumbling into dust anytime soon (nor are many of them necessarily rare), but it can't hurt to start the process now. Never knew UMG donated all that stuff, pretty cool too.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Wow, i can't even imagine 65,000 pieces of vinyl. Would love to see this "digital library" when it is complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrangerwithcandy Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I wonder how many Expedits he had... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skadaddy Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I wonder how many Expedits he had... Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruckis Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I wonder how many Expedits he had... ^lol This is pretty cool. It'll be awesome being able to browse all his LP's. So many bands I've never even heard of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Yeah I'm really curious as to what exactly is going on this digital archive. Hell, imagine* digitizing all those records, it would take such a long time and tons of resources! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynamitekid Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 That would be such a cool job to digitize all of those records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurrobear Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 That would be such a cool job to digitize all of those records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclz Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Wish they would unload the entire Peel Sessions catalog there are some other nice Mike Davis BBC sessions that I would like to hear too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicondevil Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Wow, I will take all of those lps that are not "necessarily rare". There is probably so much crazy stuff in there and most likely many that are very rare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I wanna see photos of this collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shitty Rambo Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I am only aware of John Peel's existence because of Lightning Bolt. My comment is in no way relevant and I apologize if I wasted anyone else's time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I am only aware of John Peel's existence because of Lightning Bolt.My comment is in no way relevant and I apologize if I wasted anyone else's time. fuck everyone/anyone and do whatever you want Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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