The Secondhand Value of a Download

I’ve been thinking alot about digital archiving this last couple of weeks. At the recent M.E.N. bloggers meet up, beyond the rows of PCs and LCD screens, we were shown the cuttings library, the microfiche. Yet so much of the information we now consume never makes it into a physical form, being passed around virtually from one digital medium to another.
For instance, the new Oasis album comes out today. Whereas “Definitely, Maybe” was released as a CD, vinyl record and cassette, the new album comes out in a variety of formats. For those with deep pockets, a £50 deluxe edition includes download, LP, CD, bonus CD, DVD, and for all I know, a handwoven version of the album.
There is little doubt, I imagine, that in years to come, copies of “Dig Out Your Soul” will not be hard to come by, so ubiquitous is the marketing campaign, and so multifarious are the formats. Yet as any cratedigger knows, ubiquity is no substitute for rarity.
It’s been In the City in the city this weekend, though I’ve been out of town, in Cambridge and London. But I’ve been thinking a lot about “digital archives” and what it means for the arts and creative sectors. The secondhand value of a download, of course, is a big fat zero. Will our secondhand record shops of the future be selling fully-loaded iPods, one tasteful owner? Perhaps, yet its always risky to predict what the future will deem worthy of preservation.
The BBC famously wiped a good amount of Dr. Who episodes, and fans are now undertaking reconstructions that might once have seemed more appropriate for a renaissance painter’s lost works, than the wobbly sets and wonky sounds of the sixties BBC.
It’s reassuring to know, passing the British Library on Friday, that our official archivists are taking digital preservation seriously as part of the Web Archiving Consortium, where you will find a number of Manchester websites archived for posterity, whilst anyone who has digital content they want preserving can take advantage of the largesse of the US based Internet Archive.
Locally, we’ve always taken a lot of pride in our heritage, such as at the North West Film Archive based at MMU. Yet, the archives of the future are going to be looking through our discarded hard disks and USB sticks, rather than reel-to-reel tapes and Super 8 cine film. A good case in point is the ever inventive Manchester and District Music Archive, who are just just publishing a book of Joy Division manager Rob Gretton’s notebooks from 1978-1980. I’m sure his contemporary equivalent would have only a Blackberry or an iPhone for company. The secondhand value of a download might be nothing, but that shoebox under the bed… potentially priceless!