The Largest | Multitrack Music Collection Ever- -...

And thanks to a handful of archivists who refused to let history erase, the largest multitrack collection will outlive us all—provided the tape doesn't melt first. Word Count: ~1,550

has 3 million recordings, but only 40,000 are commercial music multitracks. The Largest Multitrack Music Collection Ever- -...

By the 1990s, ABKCO had amassed over 150,000 reels of tape. Today, that number exceeds . The Anatomy of the Archive To visualize the largest multitrack music collection ever assembled, you must imagine a fortress built for a paranoid audiophile. And thanks to a handful of archivists who

Furthermore, digital formats become obsolete every decade (DAT, ADAT, DCC). The collection includes 12,000 ADAT tapes that require a specific Alesis machine last manufactured in 2003. They have four machines left. When those break, the data on those tapes is gone forever. You cannot visit. If you attempted to find the facility, you would find a nondescript industrial park with no signage. Security is provided by former military contractors. The external power grid is backed by three tier-4 diesel generators and a solar array. Today, that number exceeds

(Boyers, Pennsylvania) claims to house over 20 million assets, including the masters for Sony Music, Universal, and Warner. However, those are storage clients —they do not own the collection. ABKCO owns theirs.

The answer is lawyers.