Institutional Neglect and the Necessity for Community
Empowerment within Independent Online Music Radio
By Lilli Elias
Master’s Thesis in Archiving and Information Studies, Department of Media Studies University of Amsterdam
31 January, 2020
THANK YOUS
Academic advisors: To Michael Karabinos, Annet Dekker, Carolyn Birdsall and Corinna Kaiser, thank you for being so generous with your time and your input. Your patience and resources have been invaluable during this process.
For conversations: To Laurent Fintoni, Tim Sweeney, Jason Scott, Todd Burns, Greg Markus, Leroy Chaar, Koen Nutters and Mint Park, thank you for your willingness to converse with me and share your knowledge.
Thank you to all of the participants in the case studies, and to my family and friends for their support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Thank Yous………... 2 Table of Contents……….….. 3-4 Abstract………... 5 Chapter One: Introduction……….. 6-17 1.0 Aim……….... 6-9 1.1 Research Questions……….. 9 1.2 Purpose of the Study………... 10 1.3 Background and Context……….. 10-14 1.4 Significance of the study………. 14 1.5 Scope of the Research……….. 14-15 1.6 Definition of terms……….. 15-17 1.7 Organization of Thesis……….... 17 Chapter Two: Literature Review……….. 17-43 2.0 Subsections………. 17-18 2.1 “Net Radio”... 18-20 2.2 Current Approaches to Archiving Radio Collections……….... 20-23 2.3 Eliminating Third-party Platform Reliances………... 23-25 2.4 Networked Radio and Networks of Communities………. 25-27 2.4.1 Decentralized and Nonhierarchical Forms of Communities…………... 27-28 2.4.2 Crowdsourced, Fan-based and Amateur Digital Music Archiving……. 28-31 2.4.3 Online Music Forums……….. 32 2.5 Community Archiving: Domain and Best Practices……….. 32-34 2.5.1 Post-Custodial Approach……….. 34-35 2.5.2 Participatory Archives………... 35-36 2.5.2.1 Crowdsourcing Preservation………... 36-37 2.5.2.2 Microhistory Projects……….. 37 2.5.2.3 Crowdsourcing Metadata………... 37 2.5.2.4 Participatory Appraisal……….. 36-38 2.5.2.5 Open-source Solutions………... 38 2.5.2.6 Proactive Archiving………... 38-39 2.5.2.7 Communities as Record-Keeping Systems……….. 39-40 2.6 Networks of Care………... 40-42 2.7 Interdependence……….... 42-43 Chapter 3.0: Methodology……….... 44-51 3.0 Subsections………. 44-45 3.1 Interviews……….... 45-47 3.1.1 Interview Research Methodology………... 45-46 3.1.2 Station Interview Methodology……….. 46 3.1.3 Users Interview Methodology……….. 46-47 3.1.4 Informational Interview Methodology………... 47 3.2 Case Study Research Methodology………. 48 3.3 Methodology for Assessment of Pros and Cons………... 48-49 3.4 Theoretical Methodology……….... 49
3.4.1 “Networks of Care”... 49-50 3.4.2 “Interdependence”... 50-51 Chapter 4: Results... 51-63
4.0 Subsections... 51 4.1 Defunct Stations... 51-52 4.1.1 Berlin Community Radio...52-53 4.1.2 East Village Radio... 53-54 4.1.3 Red Light Radio... 54 4.1.4 RBMA Radio... 54 4.1.5 Results... 54-55 4.2 Current Stations... 55 4.2.1 The Lot Radio... 55-56 4.2.2 Dublab... 56-57 4.2.3 Cashmere Radio... 57-58 4.2.4 Noods Radio... 58-59 4.2.5 Intergalactic FM... 59 4.2.6 Results... 59-61 4.2.7 Conclusion... 61-62 4.3 Users... 62-63 4.4 Additional Interviews... 63 Chapter 5: Weighing Benefits and Drawbacks of Community Involvement in Archiving…... 64-71 5.0 Background... 64-66 5.1 Benefits... 66-67 5.2 Drawbacks... 67-71 5.3 Assessment... 71 Chapter 6: Summary, Conclusions, Discussion and Recommendations……….. 71-78
6.1 Subsections... 72 6.2 Suggestions... 72 6.2.1 Demystifying the Archive...72-73 6.2.2 Shifting Archival Attitudes and Culture………. 73
6.2.2.1 Stations………... 73-74 6.2.2.2 Users... 74 6.2.3 Focus on Metadata... 74-76 6.2.4 Peer-to-Peer File Sharing, Open Source and Wikis……….... 76-77 6.3 Thoughts on the Future………. 77-78 Bibliography……….... 78-83 Appendix………..84-95
A Interviews………...….85-90 B List of Independent Online Music Radio Stations………...……..91-95
ABSTRACT
As radio stations migrate from the airwaves to online, a new crop of born-digital radio stations have emerged, creating a translocal network of independent music that has never existed before in this capacity. Independent online music radio stations represent a culturally significant yet overlooked site of cultural transmission and interplay. The global reach of the internet means that these stations are both hyper-local and
dispersed, operating within an unprecedented realm of community radio. While stations focus on archiving and distributing each episode during the life of the station, few stations have contingency plans in case of station closure, and case studies of defunct independent online music radio stations reveal that stations rely heavily on third-party platforms for the safekeeping of their heritage.
Despite the clear cultural value that independent online music radio stations have on their respective communities and the general music community at large, there are few resources or sustainable options for these stations to archive their output once they are no longer operating. Prompted by the question “whose responsibility should it be to manage the archive when its creators no longer can,” this thesis imagines the possibility of community members stepping in as custodians of independent online music radio heritage, both during the life of the station and after its potential demise. Applying the theories of “interdependence” and “networks of care” to independent online music radio station archives, and inspired by the recent work of participatory archives, I weigh the benefits and disadvantages of involving the community in the archiving and
custodianship of independent online music radio station archives, relying on data from case studies I conducted with station representatives, users and specialists.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.0 Aim:
As many sites of cultural production have migrated online, radio too has followed suit, demonstrating the renewed relevance of the medium.1Emerging as a user-friendly and widespread technology in 19932, online radio has since become a staple for modern listeners, and has been poised to eclipse terrestrial radio listenership in the near future.3 Not only do many stations that were born as terrestrial radio now have an online
platform, but many stations born in the internet era have only ever existed online. The implications of the relatively novel phenomenon of interconnectivity in broadcasting has catalyzed the emergence of new social structures, networks and pathways. Today, the disbursement and interchange of local independent music cultures on a global level owes much of its success to the fluidity and flexibility of the internet, embodied in born-digital, online music radio stations. As a result, a transnational independent musical network has emerged, supplanting many of the traditional outlets for music discovery, disbursement and interactions for actors within the independent music sphere. Independent online music radio stations make visible this transnational network, and provides a rare and real-time glimpse into the propagation of local musical undercurrents.
According to music journalist Todd Burns, and echoed4in the independent music sphere, independent online music radio stations are “one of the most important
journalistic and music resources that we have.5” In a period where many of the staples for independent music’s discovery, interaction and reflection are disappearing6,
6See, for example, Aaron Gilbreath, “Where Have All the Music Magazines Gone?,” Longreads, 2018, https://longreads.com/2018/12/27/where-have-all-the-music-magazines-gone/.
5Todd Burns, Interview by author, Facetime Audio, October 29, 2020.
4Jeff Ihaza, “Independent Online Radio Is the Algorithm Alternative You Need,” Pitchfork (Conde Nast, 2019), https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/independent-online-radio-is-the-algorithm-alternative-you-need/. 3See, for example, RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB, “ALL RADIO LISTENING,” Rajar Data Release, 2013. https://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/RAJAR_DataRelease_InfographicQ32013.pdf
2According to Andrea Jean Baker, “Comparing the Regulatory Models of Net-Radio with Traditional Radio,” International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society 7, no. 1 (2009): pp. 1-14,
net-radio was pioneered by Carl Malamud in 1993. Soon after, college radio stations were quick to adopt the technology.
1See, for example, Richard Berry, “Radio, Music, Podcasts – BBC Sounds: Public Service Radio and Podcasts in a Platform World,” The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 18, no. 1 (2020): pp. 63-78.
independent online music radio stations are supplanting these old forms of interactions, providing opportunities for communities to broadcast and connect with one another on a global level. Independent online music radio’s cultural value, largely unrecognized, lies in its capacity to showcase the diversity and transnationality of niche music scenes that are often ignored via major outlets. This cultural value has been especially visible during times of COVID-19, which has dealt a major blow to the live music scene, and the music world to a large degree. By the essence of existing online, independent online music radio stations are “holding together underground music scenes... providing a space for curators to keep introducing new music to listeners while we can't be together,”7and upending the ways in which music is platformed, consumed and distributed.
Despite their increasingly relevant cultural value and growing8followings, independent online music radio stations are inherently unstable. This attribute is most notably demonstrated by the demise of several successful9independent online music radio stations in recent history, whose broad communities were both local and
networked. Economic instability, rights management issues10and the sometimes illegal nature of independent online music radio stations operating outside of the norm make for unstatable and abbreviated lifespans of beloved stations. In a following chapter, results of case studies conducted of several no longer operating stations will be expanded upon.
Given both the cultural value and instability of independent online music radio stations, the archive is incredibly relevant. However, interviews and case studies conducted for this research examine archiving trends amongst shuttered independent online music radio stations, revealing an alarming lack of archival foresight, and reliance on third-party platforms as the sole evidence of the station’s existence. As case studies and interviews demonstrate, many independent online music radio stations archive their
10See, for example, Steven McClung, Bruce Mims, and Chan-pyo Hong, “College Radio Streaming and Legal Uncertainty,” Journal of Radio Studies 10, no. 2 (2003): pp. 155-169.
9See, for example, “Amsterdam's Red Light Radio Will Close in June,” Resident Advisor, 2020, https://ra.co/news/72625.
8Murray Stassen, “'NTS Is All about Total Freedom of Expression. That Lies at the Core of It',” Music Business Worldwide, 2020,
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/we-are-not-just-a-digital-utensil-for-listening-to-music/. 7Martha Pazienti Caidan, “The Hour: The Power Of Radio,” Resident Advisor, 2020,
shows using third-party platforms such as Mixcloud and Soundcloud. Third-party platforms have proved themselves hospitable to independent musicians and
independent online music radio stations for a myriad of reasons, but ultimately, they are not sustainable for long-term archiving, and additional routes should be exploited in addition to their employment. In the following chapter, I will enumerate the benefits and drawbacks of reliance on third-party platforms, with the drawbacks outweighing the benefits. As my literature review will demonstrate, this lack of foresight leads to “the loss of cultural heritage in a very present tense.”11
Whether it is due to the relative novelty, the niche audience, or circumstance that these stations are off their radar, there is no record of archival institutions acquiring the archives of independent online music radio stations, or any evidence that these stations are considered culturally important from relevant institutions. Further, there is little to no research that centers on archiving the contents of independent online music radio stations. Where institutional archives are often at the center of standardizing archival approaches, there appears to be no input coming from the archival sector at present.
Given the factors contributing to the lack of suitable archival strategies for independent online music radio stations that I’ve outlined, a problem statement thus emerges: the content of independent online music radio stations are archived and stored on unstable third-party platforms, which is not a sustainable strategy in the long-term.
As introduced previously, there is currently no suitable or standardized approach to archiving for independent online music radio stations. However, there is evidence of a wide-spread network of stakeholders who are invested in the heritage of these stations. This presents an opportunity to reframe the way in which we view archiving and
custodianship, with shared rather than delegated responsibilities at the fore. Rather than suggesting that independent online music radio stations hand their archival materials over to archival institutions for their safekeeping, this research seeks to work within a relatively new paradigm of dispersed and community-driven archiving that is already being exercised by the likes of community archives and online communities, and apply this approach to independent online music radio stations. This research seeks to
mitigate the issue of archiving independent online music radio stations on a
peer-to-peer level, thus reflecting the ethos of independent online music radio and their networks of communities, and empowering independent online music radio stations to work towards long-term preservation strategies.
1.1 Research Questions:
Considering that so many independent online music radio stations feel such a strong identity in both their sense of independence and their local and networked communities, my research question draws on the archival practices of independent and
community-driven archives. The research question carrying the weight of the thesis is thus: what are the benefits and what are the downsides if communities take part in
preservation of independent online music radio stations to prevent loss?
Using case studies of no longer operating stations as evidence for the unsuitable archival precedent for independent online music radio stations, I set about to weigh potential solutions to loss prevention as informed by qualitative research through interviews with current stations and a literature review, where I look particularly into archival practices for community radio, as well as the concepts of “interdependence” and “networks of care.”
In addition to my primary research question, my research will probe into ancillary subquestions. First, a literature review answers the following questions: how do
communities archive? What are current processes for participatory community archival practices? I consider both how communities derive their value, and what loss means for a community. I pose the question: What kinds of community formations can be found around online music radio stations?
Interviews with radio stations answer the question: what is the current state of the art for archiving independent online music radio stations? Additional interviews with users answer two questions: First, how do users interact with the independent online music radio community? Second, what are the most important elements of independent online music radio to the community and how can we incorporate these needs into a better archival design?
1.2 Purpose of the Study:
The purpose of this study is two-fold: on the small scale, the objective is to provide archiving solutions that integrate both audio and metadata beyond the prevailing strategies currently employed by independent online music radio stations. Given the inherent instability of the third-party platforms which many independent online music radio stations rely on, an alternative method of archiving is necessary for the prolonged stability of its heritage, which is inclusive of the many activities that extend beyond singular radio episodes. The goal for a solution will be self-contained, community-driven and enduring. On a grander scale, the goal of this research is to increase the visibility of independent online music radio stations, and to encourage further research.
1.3 Background and Context:
In this section, I will give a brief history of independent online music radio stations, and enumerate the reasons why their archives deserve more resources and attention. Emerging from a lineage of pirate radio, “Do it yourself” (DIY) culture and independent terrestrial radio culture, independent online music radio stations now occupy a space that is often marginalized by the commercial radio and podcast industries. To that effect, independent music radio stations both embody that lineage and set themselves apart from previous notions of pirate radio, college radio and DIY terrestrial radio in several distinct ways.
Similar to its lineage, independent online music radio stations are representative of musical undercurrents. Independent and DIY radio has a history of platforming unrecognized, emerging, marginalized and silenced acts. Beyond representation,
institutions and authorities have often questioned their legitimacy, catalyzing the need to operate outside of standard practices. Reflecting this precarity, some stations are
sometimes forced to operate in legal gray areas. Accordingly, many stations do not have archives, and as a result, their episodes are typically irretrievable. Similarly, it is rare that recordings from these stations are collected by or patronized by major archival institutions.
With that being said, there are several distinct characteristics that set
independent terrestrial radio. Although they maintain the “independent” and
“community” designation, many independent online music radio stations are for-profit entities. Whereas this is often a leading characteristic for independent and DIY radio, this does not hold true for independent online music radio stations.12
The interface through which one accesses independent online music radio stations diverges as well. Metadata beyond broadcasts is now integral to the aesthetic, cultural and sonic heritage of the station. Our modern understanding of radio
encompasses more than ever before: “contemporary radio is experimenting with ever more complex cross-media practices, where websites, video and social media are all part of many radio stations. In this setting social media practices, video and visuals and mobile apps further complicate these earlier definitions and suggest that radio is
increasingly a selection of multifaceted interactive practices.”13Some14would argue that the elasticity of radio is what makes it an enduring technology capable of transcending the test of time.
Likewise, user's engagement with radio is different than ever before because it now encompases actions beyond passive listening, and can occur across several platforms. In “The New Materiality of Radio: Sound on Screens,” Michele Hilmes, reflecting on the transformed materiality of radio, poses the pertinent question, “what is radio?”15A more accurate response is posed as a question: “what isn’t radio
today?...sums up the current situation, pointing to the sense of exploding categories and expanding possibilities that the new digital sound environment has loosed upon us.”16 Independent online music radio stations often have several points of access, including websites and apps, with their visual interface often on par with the sonic culture of the
16Ibid.
15Michelle Hilmes, “The New Materiality of Radio: Sound on Screens,” in Radio's New Wave (Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2013), 43.
14See, for example, Ariana Moscote Freire, “Remediating Radio: Audio Streaming, Music
Recommendation and the Discourse of Radioness,” The Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast
and Audio Media 5, no. 2 (2008): pp. 97-112.; and David Hendy, Radio in the Global Age (Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2007).
13Richard Berry, “Podcasting: Considering the Evolution of the Medium and Its Association with the Word ‘Radio,’” The Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 14, no. 1 (2016): pp. 17-22.
station. Besides tuning in on-demand, users can interact with a digital interface in real time, and make selections as to when and what they want to listen to.
On the management front, representatives of independent online music radio stations have praised the format for being less restrictive than terrestrial radio financially and politically.17Importantly, shows are not confined to a grid, giving the listeners more agency and allowing broadcasters to work outside of normal broadcasting hours. Broadcasters who have felt deplatformed by the corporate reach and consolidation of terrestrial radio have embraced the relative ease and low barriers to entry of online radio. Likewise, online radio has been exercised as a political tool for marginalized and at-risk communities or in localities where the voices of the people have been silenced.18 These qualities have been demonstrated by the thousands of independent online music radio stations that have emerged over the past 25 years.
Radio has long been a transnational and border-crossing medium, but since the advent of internet radio, this has been even more the case. In Radio in the Global Age, David Hendy discusses the impact of the internet and globalization on the
political-economy of radio, with independent online music radio stations demonstrating the paradox of the medium as both “intimate” and disparate.19Embodying the
contradictions of the medium set forth by Hendy, independent online music radio stations distinguish themselves from previous iterations of independent and DIY radio stations in their global, on-demand reach, but, alike their predecessors, they “are very much rooted in their communities and cities...depending on team-work and local know-how to function.”20Within the geographic confines of a local community, many independent online music radio stations see themselves as points of congregation for a physical and geographical community to incubate. However, their audience reaches far beyond these confines. Diverging from the immobility of terrestrial radio, two versions of
20Emma Finamore, “How Radio Found New Life on the Internet and Changed Music Discovery Forever,”
The Line of Best Fit, 2018,
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/articles/how-internet-radio-is-creating-a-whole-new-online-world-of-music-discovery.
19Hendy, Radio in the Global Age.
18See, for example, Gudaityte, Ieva. “The Invisible Politics Of Community Radio: The Case of Budapest Community Radios,” 2019.
17See, for example, interview with Matteo Spanó and Florian Demmer, interview by author, email, October 21, 2020.
community are relevant for independent online music radio stations: one that is bound by geography and one that is not.
Besides its lineage in DIY radio practices, independent online music radio stations also emerge from a tradition of community radio. Although it exists on a wider plain, independent online music radio cultivates and propagates a community of invested parties. Local communities that were once defined by and confined to their geography now take part in a global culture of interchange and global visibility. Both homogenous and hyper-specific, this is a new age where the dialectic of a networked and localized music scene is normalized. Independent online music radio stations demonstrate their connective powers creating platforms for like-minded and
geographically diverse people to congregate, whether online or in person.21These connections are made visible through guest mixes, live guest performances and gigs, resident swaps,22collaborations, partnerships, radio exchanges,23chats, social media, blogs and forums, among others, all features that are showcased on independent online music radio stations and their multiple platforms.
Although independent online music radio stations are not the singular catalyst of the scenes, they make visible the networks that do exist, and provide platforms for these communities to connect. According to music journalist Todd Burns, independent online music radio stations “ [expose] a network or a group of connections… obviously they’re...important platforms… [because they expose].. connected threads... scenes, people, places, all at the same time.”24Independent online music radio stations are novel in that they broadcast the local to the international, fomenting a new cultural currency.
Local and community-led independent online music radio stations are nodes in a network of communities that have overlapping actors and interests. I consider both geographical and internet-based transnational communities as communities
nonetheless, and will expand upon my interpretation of communities in my literature review. Within communities, whether physically or online, culture(s) emerge.
24Interview, Todd Burns.
23See, for example, “RA Exchange,” Soundcloud, 2020, https://soundcloud.com/ra-exchange. 22See, for example, “Rinse FM and Seoul Community Radio Announce Monthly Resident Swap,” Resident Advisor, 2020, https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/73038.
My thesis is premised on the opinion that the cultures and heritage of
independent online music radio stations are significant, not only to their surrounding and overlapping communities, but also to the musical community at large. Independent online music radio station communities are unique in that they offer a glimpse into musical undercurrents that are typically not reflected in mainstream platforms, and offer an alternative to algorithmic music discovery that is overwhelmingly becoming more of a general norm. In theory, independent online music radio should have the same
academic and journalistic attention paid to it as the likes of analogue radio and radio archiving. It is this opinion that carries the weight of my arguments.
1.4 Significance of the Study:
Online radio has become a dominant distribution format for radio, and a vital platform for musical undercurrents to congregate and proliferate. With that being said, there is a surprising lack of research or literature on the topic. This study seeks to offer solutions for the perpetuation of independent online music radio station’s heritage as vital to the musical community of the 21st century, and to position independent online music radio stations as a significant and worthy area of study.
Although an online station is often started by individuals in service of their
immediate community, the online aspect means that they become a part of a network of many like-minded local communities, creating one large and interconnected network. My research seeks to document that network, as a service to both the immediate communities and the musical community at large.
1.5 Scope of the Research:
Given the lack of research on independent online music radio, the research
opportunities and angles in which to approach the topic are endless. Among topics that are essential for future research include probing into the cultural significance of
individual stations and their wider global reach, questioning the representation and lack therefore of of marginalized and underrepresented groups, exploring potential solutions for mediating rights management restraints, offering technical aspects of archiving audio
files for longterm and sustainable access and assessing the sociopolitical implications of independent online music radio stations.
My research only touches the surface in terms of inclusivity. While there are hundreds of invaluable and important independent online music radio stations that contribute to this network, my research focuses on a select number of case studies from North America and Western Europe. Given that there is no central resource for
discovering and disseminating information about independent online music radio stations, I have assembled a list of independent online music radio stations that fall within my own realm of knowledge, reflecting the limits of the networks that I am embedded in as a listener. This list is available in the appendix of this thesis. This resource is presented as a tool for further discovery, and as a starting point for charting the many manifestations of independent online music radio stations.
The purview of this research is to orient the reader with the concept of
independent online music radio as networked radio, reflecting its diverse community, and to impart its cultural significance. Using my archival background, I propose alternatives to third-party platforms for a more sustainable, decentralized and
community-driven approach to archiving. Although I would ideally touch upon all topics listed previously, my priority in this research is to weigh the net positives and negatives of involving communities in archiving independent online music radio stations. My research is set against the test of time; when online music radio stations disappear, not only is their program content frequently lost, but also the culture of the station, with communities of presenters and their listening audiences. Although we have the tools to preserve this culture, much is lost due to insufficient archival techniques. To echo American archivist Jason Scott, “my number one concern is acquiring and having the data when it happens or before it’s removed because it’s not recognized as valuable.”25 Thus, this paper urges the academic, archival and music community to recognize the output of internet online music radio stations and its surrounding communities as culturally important.
1.6 Definition of Terms:
Several terms, which I build my argument off of, require additional clarification. Independent Online Music Radio Stations In “Comparing the Regulatory Models of Net-Radio with Traditional Radio” and “College Student Net-radio Audiences: A
Transnational Perspective,” Andrea J.C. Baker makes a distinction between two forms of internet radio (also referred to as net radio in her writings): ”radio online and net-only radio.” She elaborates,
radio online consists of regulated, traditional radio broadcasters with existing audiences, which have incorporated the internet as an adjunct service. In contrast, net-only radio, which webcasts exclusively over the internet, is generally unregulated. Net-radio, in both forms, draws its powers from five distinct characteristics of the internet and digitalisation: (i) It is a multi-media digital platform of converging print and audiovisual texts; (ii) It is interactive; (iii) It is a global medium; (iv) It provides on-demand access to a 24-hour database; and (v) It is a network of networks in a close-knit virtual online communities. Net-radio’s characteristics mean that its’ “user defined personal involvement” and interaction defines its global consumption practices and audience profile...in contrast to the ‘traditional discourse of radioness’, the real revolution of net-radio lies in its radial mode of personal audience address.26
I maintain this distinction, and offer a further distinction in which I streamline the definition in opposition to algorithmic online streaming services with “radio” functions, such as Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal.
In terms of what one might hear when they tune in to an independent online music radio station: there is no one genre that characterizes any of these stations – rather, it is the fluidity of genres that attracts its listeners. On the whole, independent online music radio stations platform a diverse range of DJs and curators, who in turn expose audiences to underrepresented, independent music across genres that do not have a place in mainstream media.
Third-party platforms In the context of this research, a third-party platform is a software that hosts and distributes audio files and associated metadata. Examples of such platforms are Mixcloud, Soundcloud and YouTube.
Community Radio Framing independent online music radio stations as community radio expands that notion of community beyond geographical borders. I argue that
independent online music radio stations host and foster communities. In my literature review, I will discuss the expanded meaning of communities in the digital age, and why, despite their differences, some of community radio’s archival practices should be adopted by independent online music radio stations.
1.7 Organization of the Thesis:
In the next chapter, a literature review will introduce the current state of research into independent online music radio stations, as well as adjacent topics informing my research. Here the primarily literature informing my selected methodology will also be discussed at length. In the following chapter, I will present and explain my chosen methodology, including case studies and interviews. The results of my interviews and case studies will follow. In the concluding chapter, I will weigh the pros and cons of community involvement in archiving, as informed by both the literature review and interviews. Lastly, I will make recommendations for stations who wish to adopt new methods for a long-term and sustainable approach to archiving.
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Subsections:
This literature review will begin by offering the current state of research on online radio. Although there is no dedicated literature on independent online music radio station archiving, or independent online music radio stations in general, there are resources that broach the topic in tangential ways. I will begin by summarizing the current state of published knowledge on online radio stations, paying close attention to the discussions on the remediated nature of the medium. I will also briefly touch on the current state of
shifting radio archiving practices. In the following subsection, I will examine another remediated form of radio, podcasting, and recent preservation efforts that have been documented and recommended for digital creators. Here I will present the presiding arguments against third-party platform reliance, and present some of the industry solutions to decreasing third-party platform reliance.
Next, I will examine different types of communities that differ from the common geographical definition, establishing independent online music radio stations as networked radio, a form of community radio. I will also define networked radio, and explore the ways in which different forms of communities factor into this designation. Here I will examine the way in which media circulates as a result of the internet, asserting that communities now take on different forms and structures in the 21st century, but that they still embody many of the very tenets that make up our understanding of community.
I will next survey different approaches to archiving beyond traditional
custodianship. First I will examine instances of fan archiving within the online music community. Next, I will examine community radio archiving tactics, including
non-custodial and participatory approaches to archiving.
The methodology for this thesis draws on two approaches. Firstly, I will introduce Annet Dekker’s "networks of care". Secondly, in conversation with Dekkers's approach, I will present Mat Dryhurst's model of "interdependence."
This literature review will set the grounds through which I will examine the benefits and drawbacks of involving the community in archiving independent online music radio stations. First understanding the current state of knowledge in the area will inform my conclusion, in combination with case studies and interviews.
2.1 “Net Radio:”
Research has made clear the absence of the independent online music radio station voice in academic radio discourse. Despite its increasing popularity and visibility, there is little academic or journalistic research on independent online music radio stations, let alone curated online radio. In one of the few distinctive writings on online radio (referred to here as net-radio), Andrea J.C. Baker articulates this deficit, voicing: “the relative
instability of net-only radio, that is, the inability to stay functioning as an online entity, is the main reason many researches… have avoided exploring its phenomenon.”27Baker’s observation is one of the presiding catalysts of my research. My belief, however, is that this unpredictability should ignite interest, rather than dissuade it.
Media anthropologist Jo Tacchi too acknowledges the delayed recognition of online radio, and calls for more research on the topic, fearing that it will become
“another neglected and under researched field.”28Her call has largely gone unanswered since her article was published in 2000.
Beginning at the turn of the 21st century, several scholars began considering the impact of radio’s migration to the internet. Notable scholars include David Black,29Kate Lacey30and Jo Tacchi.31Here scholars defined and introduced online radio as an emergent and radiogenic medium. However, most scholars wrote about online radio as only an emerging medium, focusing their analysis instead on comparing and contrasting the new medium with terrestrial radio, and considering implications of radio online rather than imagining the future of online radio, a distinction offered by Andrea J.C. Baker in her writings.32
Michele Hilmes’s 2013 “The New Materiality of Radio'' offers a refreshing and perduring approach to net-radio. Although she fails to mention independent online music radio, the author introduces “soundwork” as a term encompassing the expanded definition of radio to include the convergence of the visual and the sonic, implicitly nodding to new forms of radio embodied by independent online music radio stations. “Soundwork'' is defined as “the entire complex of sound-based digital media that enters our experience through a variety of technologies and forms,”33reconceptualizing radio
33Hilmes, 2.
32See, for example, Andrea Jean Baker, “College Student Net-Radio Audiences: A Transnational Perspective,” The Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 8, no. 2 (2011): pp. 121-139; Andrea Jean Baker, “Exploring Subcultural Models of a Discursive Youth Net-Radio Hierarchy,”
Continuum 26 (2012): pp. 409-421; Baker, “Comparing the Regulatory Models of Net-Radio with
Traditional Radio.”
31Tacchi, “The Need for Radio Theory in the Digital Age.”
30Kate Lacey, “Ten Years of Radio Studies: The Very Idea,” The Radio Journal: International Studies in
Broadcast and Audio Media 6 (2008): pp. 21-32.
29David A Black, “ Internet Radio: A Case Study in Medium Specificity,” Media, Culture and Society 23, no. 3 (2001): pp. 397-408.
28Jo Tacchi, “The Need for Radio Theory in the Digital Age,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 3, no. 2 (2000): p. 289.
and other radiogenic works as a “screen medium.”34I consider Hilmes’s definition of “soundwork” in my later argument for increased emphasis on the importance of
documenting station metadata beyond metadata concerning single episodes. I call on “soundwork” to substantiate the perduring value of archival metadata to capture the hybridity of online radio as both a visual and auditory medium, and argue that both are equally important for documenting and preserving the heritage of any independent online music radio station.
Today, the presiding literature on online radio emerges from several authors: the most notable and prolific amongst them are Andrea J.C. Baker and Ariana Friere.
Baker’s writings on online radio often emphasize user studies and online radio is often discussed in the arena of college radio. Both “College Student Net-radio
Audiences: A Transnational Perspective” and “Exploring Subcultural Models of a Discursive Youth Net-radio Hierarchy” offer some of the most relevant discussions on the transnationality of online radio, as well as offering a history of the medium. In “Comparing the Regulatory Models of Net-Radio with Traditional Radio,” Andrea J.C. Baker provides an analysis of traditional radio versus net-radio, with a particular focus on regulatory models.
Ariana Freire’s “Remediating Radio: Audio Streaming, Music Recommendation and the Discourse of Radioness” also offers some relevant discussion points and definitions concerning online radio, firmly establishing the medium as a feature of the 21st century.
While these writings are relevant and informative to the topic, they service my research by providing a solid ground to stand on, but do not offer specifics as to the musical or the archival aspects of my research.
2.2 Current Approaches to Archiving Radio Collections:
Despite the born-digital nature of independent online music radio stations, they face similar challenges to traditional forms of radio archiving. In “Preserving Radio
Broadcasts: Thoughts on Future Directions,” David Seubert summarizes the current obstacles faced in traditional radio archiving discourse, some of which also affect
independent online music radio station archiving. Seubert vocalizes the current shift in archival practices for radio, spurred by a dissatisfaction with arcane archival practices and a push for a more equitable approach. Issues that Seubert contends with include “collection appraisal, collection dispersion, institutional infrastructure and support, intellectual property issues, format obsolescence and media degradation.”35According to Seubert, “radio collections are more difficult to appraise for historical importance and uniqueness than other recorded sound materials,”36and a notable lack of metadata means that doing so is time consuming and labor-intensive. Collection dispersion is particularly challenging given the dispersed nature of radio recordings, as well as the scarcity of surviving recordings, which “were often not created with the intention of being permanently saved.”37Accordingly, materials are not properly ordered or tagged. The precarious nature of radio recordings, even with institutional support, is commonplace. Making matters worse, “preservation efforts are frequently complicated by rights issues that make it difficult to find funding through preservation initiatives in archival institutions and from funding agencies.”38As a potential solution to intellectual property issues, Seubert suggests a “model pursued by the AAPB, which has incorporated a
click-through End User License Agreement to facilitate access to digitized collections… shift[ing] potential liability for copyright infringement to its users, rather than a
repository.”39This potential solution, however, is not without issues. Seubert urges scholars and specialists to look into the future, not the past, to mitigate these issues and modernize the radio archive. Seubert concludes, offering a forward-thinking approach to the traditional archive through a participatory approach:
traditional approaches to preserving [radio collections] are almost certainly not the right path, whether assessing historical significance and then writing a preservation grant and storing it in a dark archive, or perhaps cataloging the tapes and then letting users drive digitization through requests… the presumed centrality of the archive...needs to be rethought. Could crowdsourcing preservation through the existing network of fans of the show accomplish more
39Ibid., 16. 38Ibid., 16. 37Ibid., 15. 36Ibid., 14.
35David Seubert, “Preserving Radio Broadcasts: Thoughts on Future Directions,” Journal of Archival
in less time than an institutional approach? It would require rethinking certain archival norms and practices, but the end result might render content more accessible to users and in a
timeframe that mitigates against the unstoppable deterioration of the carrier media that will soon make this content unretrievable by even the most well-intentioned of collecting institutions.40
Seubert’s vision is echoed by several contemporaries, including Shawn VanCour. VanCour offers critiques of historical radio archival practices and potential solutions to mitigate digital obsolescence and favoritism toward collections of network broadcasting materials in “Locating the Radio Archive: New Histories, New Challenges.” In the report, VanCour details the overwhelming dominance of radio broadcasts from major
commercial networks in American archives that “make a significant portion of the
nation’s recorded cultural history.”41In response, VanCour details the recruitment efforts of the US-based Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF), who pay particular attention to integrate born-digital radio and unconventional forms of radio into the archive. In their plan, the RPTF calls for “proactive archiving of audio materials produced within the present,” in addition to “retroactive preservation and digitization of analog-era recordings,”42looking both into the future and respecting the past.
In “Introduction: The State of Radio Preservation,” Laura J. Treat and Shawn VanCour map the modern radio preservation movement, envisioning a more modern and equitable approach to archiving radio archives. Authors advocate the following tactics for overhauling the radio preservation field: “preservation agendas; expanding access to preservation training and diversifying archival education; preserving public media collections in university archives; preserving programming by and for historically underrepresented groups; surveying preservation practices at commercial and
non-profit stations; creating access initiatives through local partnerships; cultivating transnational preservation strategies; exploring new transfer technologies; developing sustainable digital solutions; working with content creators; building alternative
preservation networks; and, working with community volunteers.”43Treat and VanCour’s
43Laura Treat and Shawn VanCour, “Introduction: The State of Radio Preservation,” Journal of Archival
Organization 17, no. 1-2 (2020): pp. 1-12.
42Ibid.
41Shawn VanCour, “Locating the Radio Archive: New Histories, New Challenges,” Journal of Radio &
Audio Media 23, no. 2 (2016): pp. 395-403.
diagnoses and proposed solutions suggest that radio preservation, alike independent online music radio stations, requires a more nuanced and sophisticated approach in order to solidify its future perpetuation and continued accessibility.
Michael Falcone, B. Real and Y.Q. Liu compare the differences in archival practices between nonprofit and commercial radio stations in “Behind the Transmitter: Differences in Archival Practices Between Nonprofit and Commercial Radio Stations.” Results for a case study comparing nonprofit stations to commercial stations revealed that nonprofit stations are “more likely to actively maintain their archives and do so in a manner that shows awareness of current archival stations, whereas commercial stations are less likely to exert active stewardship over their collections.”44The authors attribute this fact to the enthusiasm for and desire to preserve radio heritage. In their conclusion, the authors advocate for more accessible tools for hand-on archiving and demystifying the archive.
An assessment of current literature provides a survey of current discourse on radio archiving, making clear the following points: historical archival approaches to radio need to be overhauled and reimagined in order to create and maintain sustainable, inclusive and long-lasting radio archives; community-driven initiatives, including
participatory archives, have been proposed as more efficient and sustainable methods for archiving radio; and increasing the availability of archival education and tools for community members and creators is essential for maintaining radio heritage.
2.3 Eliminating Third-party Platform Reliances:
Here I will expand upon an earlier argument about why third-party platforms are unequipped to manage the long-term archives of independent online music radio stations, and introduce solutions proposed for preserving podcasts, an adjacent
remediation of radio. Many independent online music radio stations believe that handing their tracks and metadata over to a third-party platform obviates the need for an archival system of their own. Likewise, in the podcasting world, dependencies on third-party platforms for managing, archiving and hosting podcast episodes has become the
44Michael Falcone, B. Real, and Y. Q. Liu, “Behind the Transmitter: Differences in Archival Practices Between Nonprofit and Commercial Radio Stations,” Journal of Archival Organization 17, no. 1-2 (2020): pp. 66-94.
industry standard.45Leaders of industry within the realm of podcasting recognize this increasing dependence on third-party platforms, but advocate for decreasing this dependence. However, they acknowledge that “the technologically complex and dispersed nature of podcasting will pose a difficult preservation challenge to those tackling born-digital audio preservation,”46which also affects independent online music radio stations.
In many ways, the presiding view of this paper establishes that independent online music radio stations share many of the same goals as podcasters. For example, both podcasters and webcasters share overlapping goals of safeguarding the legacy of their respective shows and station heritage through creating enduring content.
Dependency on third-party platforms moves us further away from an enduring model of ownership, and increasingly strips the agency from creators. According to the authors of “Subscribe, Rate and Preserve Wherever You Get Your Podcasts,” one of the presiding studies on podcast preservation, “the conveniences afforded by platforms have
disconnected podcasters from how their metadata, audio files, and RSS work under the hood. These layers of abstractions between services and end-users can contribute to lack of end-user agency, especially during instances of systems failure.”47
Likewise, the instability of respective platforms themselves are also called into question: “failure happens, in large part, because most systems rely on the market viability of their parent companies.”48This instability is demonstrated by recent infamous episodes, such as “the sudden clearing of hundreds of thousands of files from
Myspace”49and the financial instability of Soundcloud as glaring examples.50
In order to mitigate these issues, amongst other issues centering around digital preservation, the PodcastRE initiative was set up by Jeremy Morris to help digital creators establish enduring and sustainable models for preserving their podcasts. The
50A perfect example of this is Soundcloud, a popular and free audio and podcast hosting platform used especially by independent creators, that nearly went bankrupt in 2017.
49In 2019, Myspace infamously and abruptly deleted more than fifty-three million user-uploaded files from its server; Ibid.,169.
48Ibid., 165.
47Mary Kidd, Sarah Nguyen, and Erica Tikemeyer, “Subscribe, Rate and Preserve Wherever You Get Your Podcasts,” Journal of Archival Organization 17, no. 1-2 (2020): pp. 161-177.
46Ibid.,162.
45Mary Kidd, Sarah Nguyen, and Erica Tikemeyer, “Subscribe, Rate and Preserve Wherever You Get Your Podcasts,” Journal of Archival Organization 17, no. 1-2 (2020): pp. 161-177.
Preserve this Podcast (PTP) project proposes solutions for “rely[ing] less on third-party platforms to sustain their podcast’s discoverability and accessibility through open tools and better control of metadata...The resulting curriculum focuse[s] on four key lessons: file and folder management, storage and backups, metadata, and self-hosting.”51PTP advises a “3-2-1” backup approach,” which is a self-contained and self-reliant means of archiving that is already practiced in variations by several independent online music radio stations interviewed for this research.52
Not only do experts on podcast preservation seek to eliminate third-party platform dependencies, but they also seek to increase metadata accountability. PTP encourages podcasters “to see metadata, along with audio files, as part of what they are creating and preserving. By embedding metadata into their files (i.e., filling out ID3 tags) or contextualizing metadata alongside their files (i.e. foldering an audio file with its transcript or creating a podcast website), and backing up their files in a 3-2-1 fashion, podcasters are effectively creating an archive of evidence (i.e. provenance) for how they originally intended to describe their podcast.”53
On a more forward-thinking note, PTP also suggests that podcasters establish open-source and self-hosted systems: “by establishing a self-hosted system
[open-source], podcasters can effectively eliminate their financial and technological dependence on their-party platforms, better guaranteeing their podcast’s longevity and accessibility on the web.”54Establishing a “platform-independent hosting system,”55in combination with the other three areas advanced by PTP, are the current models of endurance, although the model has yet to be widely adopted by podcasters.
Although research on preserving independent online music radio station episodes and associated metadata is currently unavailable, podcast preservation research provides an excellent footing from which to approach independent online music radio station preservation practices. Looking towards PTP and PodcastRE’s
55Ibid. 54Ibid., 171. 53Kidd, et al., 171.
52Jeremy Wade Morris, Samual Hansen, and Eric Hoyt, “The PodcastRE Project: Curating and Preserving Podcasts (and Their Data),” Journal of Radio & Audio Media 26, no. 1 (2018): pp. 8-20. 51Ibid., 171.
suggestions can help to manifest more sustainable tactics for independent online music radio stations that are often in precarious positions.
2.4 Networked Radio and Networks of Communities:
The slogan of NTS Radio, a London-based independent online music radio station with a vast and dispersed international audience is “real music community is more important than ever.”56But what is the “real music community” and how might it differ from a “music community?” Does the qualifier “real” imply a nonexistent community, or an unreal music community? The paradox of what one might refer to as a virtual music community urging the importance of a “real” community is not lost, but it is also a sign of the ever-complex nature of communities. In the same way that “archive” has no singular definition, the definition “community” is also disparate and subjective, depending on its user and context. Here I will expand upon my research on communities, framing independent online music radio actors as community members.
Reflecting the environment in which they emerged, and the social structures that emerge as a result of connections made between listeners and respective stations, I refer to these as networks of communities, and thus establishing independent online music radio stations as networked radio, challenging some of the prevailing
discussions57on community archives. Defined as much by its local communities as by the networks that it is embedded in, I argue that independent online music radio is not singularly community radio, but instead a part of a far more complex network of actors. Discussing archival endeavors for one community is impossible without implicating a whole network of actors, who exist on a physical, virtual and hybrid plane. Networked radio differs from community radio because it is not strictly driven by its immediate community, but instead driven by and embedded in many networks. Establishing this definition is important because case studies and resulting conclusions are not only dependent on establishing that these stations harbor respective communities, but also that interactions and exchanges with other communities are commonplace. The fluid
57See, for example, Ben Alexander, Community Archives: the Shaping of Memory, ed. Jeannette Allis Bastian (London: Facet Publishing, 2009).
nature of these interactions with other geographically diverse communities define these communities as much as their physical communities, a particularity that is detailed in David Hendy’s Radio in the Global Age. Thus I look towards fluid community solutions to mitigate archival issues that emerge for independent online music radio stations.
In this section, I will introduce literature on the different forms of communities, with the internet as the connective tissue, and music interests as the impetus of such connections. I will also discuss community-initiatives that came to fruition as a result of virtual and networks of communities, such as fan-based and crowd-sourced archives, forums and networks.
2.4.1 Decentralized and Nonhierarchical Forms of Communities:
As a key tenet of my research, I refer to the communities that emerge around
independent online music radio stations as networks of communities, and independent online music radio as networked radio. Here I will also extend the distinction between communities and networks of communities, honoring the paradoxical nature of the hyperlocal and dispersed nature of radio. Networks of communities are disparate yet interconnected communities that emerge as a result of a common interest. Much has been written about the potential to reframe communities as a result of globalization and our increased connectivity. Marshall McLuhan’s “Global Village” is often viewed as an impetus for academic theoretic discourse on the effects of globalization as one of the cornerstones of media theory. McLuhan’s “Global Village” continues to be relevant today, in that it predicted the homogenization of culture and the fluency in which people from different communities are able to interact and exchange ideas on a daily basis. With no centralized control, nodes influence one another through exchanges, creating a currency of their own. In “The Future of Archives as Networked, Decentralised,
Autonomous and Global”, Victoria Lemieux, drawing on the work of Manuel Castells58, expands: “networks are decentralised–or at least leave the impression of being so; unlike hierarchies, there is no command and control from the top. They represent a completely different sort of organizing principle - of thought ('hive mentality'), of social
58Victoria Lemieux, “The Future of Archives as Networked, Decentralised, Autonomous and Global,” in
action (literally, 'social networks') and of our material world (the internet).”59The importance of referring to communities that emerge around independent online music radio stations as networks of communities is essential, as it establishes that there is no hierarchy, and stations are only connected loosely and tangentially by actors. The density of such networks is only increasing overtime. In a time during which Lemieux denotes the “shift to networks,”60understanding the power of such networks is essential for stations to reclaim their agency.
Lemieux continues, “not only decentralisation, but autonomy...emerge as defining features of the network organizing principle. Finally, the network modus operandi is one that transcends the national or the particular while at the same time encompassing it. It is–or seeks to be–inherently globally interconnected.”61Lemieux’s descriptions of networks encapsulate the paradoxical nature of the communities and currencies that emerge as a result of independent online music radio stations–homogenous and yet uniquely local. Networks of communities and networked radio capture the impossibility of hierarchies, chronologies and indexes, as they are cascading and ever-expanding. They emerge as a result of shared interests, dedications and hobbies. These networks of communities are made visible in case studies and interviews with station
representatives that were conducted for the purpose of this research.
In the next section, I will discuss other forms of communities that have emerged on the internet.
2.4.2 Crowdsourced, Fan-based and Amateur Digital Music Archiving:
In “Behind the Transmitter: Differences in Archival Practices Between Nonprofit and Commercial Stations,” authors offer a meditation on alternative forms of archiving: “amateur archivists and crowd sourcing are among the more hopeful undertakings to combat the large loss of heritage.”62In this section, I will introduce successful instances in which community members take on the role of archivist.
62Falcone et al., 70. 61Ibid.
60Ibid. 59Ibid.
Online communities are examples of communities that exist outside of the traditional institutional cultural heritage framework, but are also increasingly important for piecing together the past where institutional recordings fall through the gaps. Where communities have often been dependent on geographical factors, the internet now facilitates interactions between geographically diverse stakeholders. Today, “social structures have now emerged that are maintained almost entirely over the internet,”63 reshaping the way in which we define communities. Here I investigate transnational and non-geographical communities enabled by the internet, describing cases in which community members engage in self-initiated and self-contained instances of archiving.
In “Community in Cyber Space?: The Role of the Internet in Facilitating and Maintaining a Community of Live Music Collecting and Trading,” Peter P. Nieckarz, Jr. introduces a community of live music collecting and trading facilitated entirely on the internet. Citing the impact that the internet has had on our lives, and the “increased tendency toward disembedded social structures,”64Nieckarz observes that “social structure has become increasingly far-reaching and pervasive while at the same time becoming more centralized and unified.”65Calling for a more plural and flexible definition of community, the author reimagines communities as “a group of individuals, who
engage in sustained cooperative activities that, in the process, construct a common identity and a negotiated order, posses shared definitions, feel a sense of longing, and a sense of commitment to the group and its preservation.”66 Virtual communities, he argues, fall into ”the criteria of regular interaction, a negotiated order, a sense of
belonging, shared goals and values, distinct norms, identity and social status, personal commitment to the group and its preservation, sources of social status, sources of interpersonal support, and a process of socialization are certainly present in the evidence of the distinct and reflexive culture revealed in the findings.”67
In another account of communities initiating self-contained archival efforts, David A. Wallace assesses the history of the Grateful Dead archive. In “Co-creation of the
67Ibid., 418. 66Ibid., 407. 65Ibid., 404. 64Ibid., 420.
63Peter P. Nieckarz, “Community in Cyber Space?: The Role of the Internet in Facilitating and Maintaining a Community of Live Music Collecting and Trading,” City & Community 4, no. 4 (2005): pp. 403.
Grateful Dead Sound Archive: Control, Access and Curation Communities,” Wallace details the “aggregated-disaggregated taper and trader community” that surrounds the Grateful Dead. Wallace details the ecosystem in which amateur tapers and official band recordings co-exist, composing the record of the Grateful Dead’s live experience in equal parts, and resulting “in the successful curation, documentation and access to a substantial [distributed and centralized] archive.”68
Even more than the archive that they continue to create, the community as a respective artifact establishes its own distinct culture and heritage. In a case study conducted by Wallace, one participant’s comment is particularly salient: “there was a culture within this transaction, this practice, and this product.”69The user’s comment resonates with and is mirrored in other community-led and initiated archival efforts that emerge as a result of shared interests, with a “foundational ethos of
non-commercialized sharing and co-operation.”70
According to Wallace, “distributed production, curation and documentation
management” has resulted in “an online archive– actually several online archives – that provide far more content and context than could ever be possible if a traditionally
configured institutional or collecting archival setting. This harnessing of expertise outside the formal archive hints at the types of emergent theory and praxis of user collaboration.”71Reconsidering the ways in which archives are formed and cared for also creates a more equitable and representative archive, offering “the opportunity for [participants] to document their participation in mass cultural events on their own terms and for their own purposes…. as a source of social memory and authenticity, and to mediate the events of their lives through means of technological reproduction.”72
He attributes the success of the operation to “the attendant collective joy it incarnated. It also helps to partly explain why so many individuals were willing to leverage
considerable voluntary effort and personal resources (both materially and temporally) to
72Ibid., 172. 71Ibid. 70Ibid., 188. 69Ibid., 172.
68David A. Wallace, “Co-Creation of the Grateful Dead Sound Archive: Control, Access and Curation Communities,” in Community Archives: The Shaping of Memory (London: Facet, 2018), pg. 90.
create something that, in effect, was required to be shared to be meaningfully valued as a community resource.”73
In another instance of fan-driven archives, fans constitute much of the available knowledge and recorded materials on a given topic. In “Ripping the Pith from the Peel: Institutional and Internet Cultures of Archiving Pop Music Radio,” Ken Garner assesses the online “specialist, minority-interest listening community” that emerged as part of a Yahoo chat group devoted to the late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and their “original archival work.”74According to Garner, “over the past five years the group has digitally reconstructed more than 1,300 otherwise lost radio shows presented by Peel, by ripping, sharing and combining listeners’ collection of fragmentary off-air cassette recordings.”75Garner demonstrates “how listener-based, crowdsourced archiving offers a new model of public radio archival practice”76where “work is done collectively by listeners themselves, voluntarily. It is solely down to the online nature of the listener community, and the cheap and universal availability over the past decade of
sophisticated audio digitization and correction software for come computers, that this collective archiving has proved possible.”77Fans log and share shows for which audio files have been uploaded on a John Peel Wiki. In fact, during their assemblage of the official BBC John Peel archive, they relied on audio files and metadata supplied by the “illegal” archive. In his assessment of the case, Garner attributes the success of “this illegal archive... to the centrality in Peel’s listeners’ behaviour of taping the programme off the radio…such dedication may represent a minority of a specialist audience, but the net result is captured radio otherwise lost, not officially archived anywhere, is substantial to say the least.”78
Similarly to Wallace, Garner questions the impetus for such efforts, arriving at “goodwill.”79These projects, according to Garner, “are conducted in a largely altruistic spirit of mutual dedication to a cause. Not entirely, though, because one of the
79Ibid. 78Ibid., 21 77Ibid. 8 76Ibid. 75Ibid., 6
74Ken Garner, “Ripping the Pith from the Peel: Institutional and Internet Cultures of Archiving Pop Music Radio,” Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media 10, no. 2 (2012): pp., 5-6. 73Ibid., 188.
motivations, obviously, is to have the pleasure of hearing lost old Peel shows...tapers share their tapes for free; members of the group fund the costs of tape distribution; and give up many hours of their time voluntarily and unpaid to documenting, dating,
digitizing and sharing recordings and tack listings.”80Both case studies present
successful iterations of community-led archival efforts that have positively impacted the memory of each respective topic.
2.4.3 Online Music Forums:
Informational interviews conducted by myself, particularly with Tim Sweeney and Laurent Fintoni, highlighted the history of participatory and community-led musical initiatives that emerged especially around electronic dance music, UK garage, Chicago house and Detroit techno communities. Despite their enduring impression on many music aficionados, and continued relevance, there is little written about online music forums. In An Exclusive Signal: Rinse FM and UK Club Music in the Digital Age, Simen Lindblad lends one of the sole academic analyses of music forums, although only in relation to a grander examination of UK club music station Rinse FM. Lindblad’s case study interviews members from Dubstepforum, “the largest concentrated community of UK club music listeners”81that emerged around fan-generated tracklistings, forums and sharing fan-archived Rinse FM shows. Lindblad’s case study establishes the
significance of Dubstepforum and its community members as partially responsible for the proliferation of the UK club music scene “where scene participants “(...) around the world come together in a single scene-making conversation via the Internet”82as is the case with Dubstepforum.”83Despite the insufficient literature on the topic, it would be remiss to overlook the participatory and community-led instances of archiving facilitated by the internet that took place on music forums such as Dubstepforum and MixesDB. 2.5 Community Archiving: Domain and Best Practices:
83Ibid. 82Ibid., 13.
81Simen Kolstad Lindblad (Stockholm University, 2014), pp. 1-100. 80Ibid. 44
