Re: [ARSCLIST] When you die...

[Matt Sohn <mahatma57@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I sent this once already, but it never arrived in my inbox. Apologies if you 
get it twice..

> >  at some point we need to be clear that these are NOT masters - have
> > NO artifactual value - are not unique - and so have very small value -
> > and high cost to keep for reasons that are at best very unclear.
> The number of copies of a disc is always diminishing. It's surprising
> how quickly a disc (or a book) can go down to a handful of surviving
> copies.

With the current migration of music to digital mediums, many consumers are
now buying (or otherwise acquiring) all their music in completely digital
form. Ones music collection may reside entirely on their computer and their
iPod. This seems to be the way of the future. As Jim pointed out, the cost
of storage is always increasing, as anyone who owns a storage locker knows,
and many personal collections are being dumped because the owners can no
longer afford to keep them (I had all my records in a storage locker for
five years at over $100/month, simply because I couldn't bear to part with
them) so, as Don says, the supply is always diminishing.
I think that within our children's lifetime the value of owning music that
is simply on a physical carrier will be greatly increased, for curiosity's
sake if nothing else (the same reason that children's toys from the early
part of the 20th century command huge prices at antique auctions, because
most of them got broken or destroyed). As a species, I think we will always
be curious about how our ancestors and forebearers lived, which explains why
archaeologists go nuts when they find ancient garbage dumps. I am personally
very glad that my dad saved all his old scratchy Coleman Hawkins and Woody
Herman records, for very personal reasons that have nothing to do with their
artifactual or monetary value. When I was a child, I dismissed the music my
parents listened to as old fogey stuff, but as the years go on, I keep
digging farther and farther back.

-Matt Sohn