CAN YOU DIGIT?

FLACS, WAVs, MP3s, M4As... to many record collectors, files on a computer hold little interest, even though they may contain the actual sounds that fuel our passion for music in the first place. But even if they don't exist in physical format, the emergence of downloading and streaming platforms since the turn of the century, and the subsequent removal of some of the "content" therein, has made some of the music circulated rare and sought-after.

- By Matthew Quinlan

Matthew Quinlan asks what's left for collectors when music falls to bits.

In January 2000, IT administrators at Indiana University blocked Napster. The music sharing service, which never touched the music, just introduced supply to demand, had launched seven months earlier with no marketing, but it was already gobbling up two-thirds of campus bandwidth. Music fans couldn’t get enough. Napster rode the internet into every home, built on choice, convenience, and no cost to the consumer, before iTunes then digital streaming platforms (DSPs) did the first two cheaply enough to make a clean criminal record and better-quality audio worth paying for.

In the spring of 2000, the most traded song on Napster was Metallica’s I Disappear. The song multiplied to thousands, perhaps millions, of copies. This was about as far from rare records as it was possible to get, but it had a new hallmark of collectability: it was only available digitally. I Disappear hadn't officially been released yet.

Digital songs are spirits in a material world. This is Record Collector but there are no records here, no price guides or grading, and it’s not always what we think of as collecting. The remit is, “What can we hear that we can’t hold?” and, for the most part, we'll keep it legal.

SCHRÖDINGER'S CATALOGUE

When we collect records, we cut and paste them between owners, but we copy and paste digital music. That doesn’t mean digital is unlimited. Many of the records we collect came and went - they were gone from record shops by the time we knew we wanted them - and timing still matters. The digital music box exists in a state of flux.