Ether Today, Gone Tomorrow: 21st Century Sound Recording Collection in Crisis

Today’s music industry increasingly favors online-only, direct-to-consumer distribution. No longer can librarians expect to collect recordings on tangible media where first-sale doctrine applies. Instead, at an ever-increasing rate, librarians are discovering that music recordings are available only via such online distribution sites as iTunes or Amazon.com. These distributors require individual purchasers to agree to restrictive end-user license agreements (EULAs) that explicitly forbid institutional ownership and such core library functions as lending. What does this mean for the future of music libraries? The coauthors present an overview of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project tasked with investigating the issue, and recommend a series of next steps designed to build our professional capacity toward addressing the challenge.