Internet Archive 78 rpm records archive is online

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 10, 2017
Internet
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The Great 78 Project is a new project by the Internet Archive to preserve 78 rpm records that has released about 26000 records as of today.

The project will publish a new digitized 78 rpm record every 10 minutes, and announces new publications on the project's official Twitter account. According to the project's homepage, project members have access to more than 200000 records.

78 rpm records were published between about 1898 to the 1950s. The most popular and commercially successful recordings have been rereleased as LPs or CDs, but many have not.

While the commercially viable recordings will have been restored or remastered onto LP’s or CD, there is still research value in the artifacts and usage evidence in the often rare 78rpm discs and recordings. Already, over 20 collections have been selected by the Internet Archive for physical and digital preservation and access.

Tip: The Internet Archive is home to many preservation projects. You can read classic computer magazines there, and play and download DOS and classic computer games.

Internet Archive 78 rpm records archive

78rpm records archive

The digitized copies of the original 78 rpm records preserve imperfections and the surface noise of the recordings. The recordings were released mostly on Shellac, a fragile predecessor to the LP.

The main entry point of the 78 rpm records archive is found here. It lists the available records, and provides searching and filtering options. Filters provide you with options to limit the results in multiple ways. You may filter by year, collection, creator, or language for instance.

The dominant language of the recordings is English, but you find a couple of hundred recordings in languages such as Polish, Spanish, Italian or German as well there.

Creators refer to the artists that created the recording. You get a big list of names when you open the full artists listing. Popular artists include Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, Gene Autry, Jim Dorsey, Paul Whiteman, or Glenn Miller.

A click on a recording opens it on the Internet Archive website. You can play it right on the page thanks to the embedded music player that you find attached to the top of the page.

This page lists information about the recording -- publisher, author, digitization, catalog number and user reviews -- and download options. Provided are several formats including FLAC, OGG and MP3. There is no option to download the entire collection of records though at this point in time.

Closing Words

The new collection is interesting to fans and researchers alike. Fans may download rare recordings of artists they like to listen to.

Now You: Remember Shellac?

Summary
Internet Archive 78 rpm records archive is online
Article Name
Internet Archive 78 rpm records archive is online
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The Great 78 Project is a new project by the Internet Archive to preserve 78 rpm records that has released about 26000 records as of today.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. DW said on April 26, 2019 at 6:00 am
    Reply

    Love this

  2. SortingHat said on September 2, 2017 at 2:50 pm
    Reply

    Nice but I hate the (lack) of organization on IA. I guess on smartphones people don’t give a damn but on a computer or laptop it matters greatly. On phones half the people are on pot anyways and don’t mind doing random crap but if you do mind then your outta luck.

  3. Alex said on August 14, 2017 at 2:22 am
    Reply

    So If I want to play the albums with my local player is there an easy way to download all of it and not one by one? Say a torrent…

  4. mikef90000 said on August 10, 2017 at 11:09 pm
    Reply

    Now only if the greedy major record companies would release their rights to the thousands of ‘abandonware’ 45s released from 1945 to 1960 that will NEVER be produced again. Have yet to find most on a streaming service or iTunes.

    1. Jojo said on August 12, 2017 at 9:45 am
      Reply

      Are you referring to Doo Wop songs? There are a lot of stations playing these on internet radio. Search for “Doowop cafe” on apps like Audials, Radio Net or Tunein. Or just search for “doowop” on these apps and see what comes up.

  5. Rush said on August 10, 2017 at 10:08 pm
    Reply

    Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra-Ain’t Misbehavin’

    Recorded on July 22, 1929 in New York City

    Just WOW!

    Thank you, Mr. Brinkmann.

    This site: is Spinning Gold…..

  6. TimH said on August 10, 2017 at 6:31 pm
    Reply

    Martin –

    “The recordings were released mostly on Shellac, a fragile predecessor to the LP.”

    better:

    “The recordings were released mostly on Shellac, a fragile predecessor to vinyl used by 33 1/3 rpm LPs.”

  7. Ray said on August 10, 2017 at 6:10 pm
    Reply

    Nice find!

    Always a fan of projects like these.

  8. Clairvaux said on August 10, 2017 at 2:44 pm
    Reply

    Comment on Beethoven’s piano concerto n° 5, with Benno Moiseivitch and George Szell conducting (1938) :

    “Stunning. Totally stunning. The quality is fantastic. This is the Concerto in E Flat Major played as I like to imagine Beethoven himself would played it, had he ever done so. Whoever transferred the music did an admirable job. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better version of this concerto either before or since.”

    https://archive.org/details/BeethovenPianoConcertoNo.5emperormoiseivitch

    And I must say that I never thought 78 rpms could sound that way. I’m one of those who can actually make direct comparisons.

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