The ARChive of Contemporary Music is a not-for-profit archive, music library and research center located in New York City. The ARChive collects, preserves and provides information on the popular music of all cultures and races throughout the world from 1950 to the present. Since the ARChive's founding in 1985 our holdings have grown to over two million sound recordings, making the ARChive the largest popular music collection in the world. In addition to sound recordings and publications, the ARChive actively collects all books, magazines, videos, films, photographs, press kits, newspapers clippings, memorabilia and ephemera relating to the history of popular music--over 2 million items. We also maintain an electronic database of 35,000 people working in the music industry and 200,000 sound recordings cataloged at the ARChive.
Our Board includes Jellybean Benitez, David Bowie, Jonathan Demme, Ellie Greenwich, Jerry Leiber, Edward P. Murphy, Youssou N’Dour, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, Fred Schneider, Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon, Mike Stoller + Jerry Wexler.
If you are in a band, or run a label you should be concerned about preservation for the future. We encourage you to send us a message (as countless others have) about donating your materials to the ARChive for archiving. (If you are interested, please do send us a message--if you post your inquiry into our comments we may not see it!) Majors are very proactive when it comes to archiving. This means that when future generations look for a sense of what music was like "back then," much of how their histories will be written will be based on the music released by majors and not the smaller but no less important independent bands that reach people in different ways. For this reason it's particularly important that the more hard-to-reach bands active in the trenches submit materials. If you're interested, do give some serious thought to tossing your materials into a mailer and sending 'em our way!
The ARChive is also the home of the New York Music Index and Archive (or NYMIA). Made possible through a New York State Music Fund Grant, the NYMIA is a freely available online relational database to provide information and access to all aspects of the popular music industry in the State of New York. The goal of the NYMIA is to facilitate the business of music-making through contacts and links. In this way anyone can learn about available grants, upcoming festivals, appropriate venues, instrument repairs, aggregators, record companies, publishers, sales outlets - any and all music related goods and services.
We will be launching the NYMIA for general use very soon! Keep an eyes open for an announcement in the coming weeks!!
The ARChive's cast of characters includes:
B.
Phast Phreddie
Dr. Dan
Jon Hammer
Bryan (He who hath no web link)
