Co-founded by B. George and David Wheeler in 1985, the Archive of Contemporary Music brings together one of the largest vinyl collections in the world.
So, let’s see, 3 million multiplied by 185 grams, that’s 555 million grams. 555 tons of vinyl records in the bins of the ARCHive of Contemporary Music, on a street in Tribeca, south of Manhattan, New York.
Untraceable blues, Haitian rarities… an extraordinary heritage
It is one of the largest vinyl collections in the world and can be visited like an incredible museum. The Archive of Contemporary Music is a New York non-profit library that houses approximately 3 million vinyl records. An extraordinary heritage composed of nuggets, 78 rpms, 33 rpms of all styles, untraceable blues, rarities Haitian, Brazilian, African. It goes from punk au jazz passing through the countrythe western, the folk, the hip hopthe rock, experimental music, nothing is missing. There are personal collections offered in this library, that of Keith Richards of the Stones for example, or even from the director Jonathan Demme, to whom we owe Thesilenceofthelambs.
Preserving the richness of recorded music
This incredible library, which saw the light of day in the mid-80s on the initiative of a certain B George, initially only brought together the latter’s collection, made up of 47,000 records. And then very quickly this collection was supplemented exponentially with the objective today of preserving the richness of recorded music at a time when the industry no longer makes any effort in this direction. And in fact, the place has become a gold mine for all those who work on music, its history, its heritage… The ARC has already started to digitize a large part of its collection.
Personalities who support these endangered archives
Obviously, in the era of streaming, and even if vinyl has regained some colors in recent years, it all seems a little outdated. Much to the chagrin of Fred Schneidersinger of the B-52’s who is one of the institution’s advisors alongside, among others, Nil Rodgersthe immense Todd Rundgren or even Martin Scorsese. So many personalities in the tough, because the Archive of Contemporary Music is forced to move and struggles to find the funds necessary to rent a new space able to accommodate such a quantity of albums and such a weight. Everything will be decided in February, the final deadline to find a solution, otherwise the collection will be moved and stored in different locations.
2024-02-05 11:15:12
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