Help Save The Music Archives!

Help Save The Music Archives!

I need some help to digitally convert the tapes to digital files. As you may already know the tapes are turning to rust. Time is running out to save these recorded treasures.

Please, if you have enjoyed any of the videos I have posted on the Youtube channel donate to the cause. You can donate a couple euro, 5, 10, or 100’s! Every little bit helps. Each camera costs me about $350 to find, have it shipped and customs duty to get. Not all of them work well, but some are tested and work very well. I figure one of them, in great condition, can encode up to 1000 tapes which is about 2000 bands concerts.

I have set up various channels to help find the bands you were part of or loved so much. There is a channel for the Bull & Gate, London, 12 Bar Club London, Spiral Lounge New York City and Acme Underground (Under Acme) and The Fort at Sidewalk Cafe. I even have a vast collection of Antifolk concerts at park. Right now there are hundreds of videos in each category and there are more videos from CBGB’s, and many other clubs in the Videoseconds main channel

I usually spend 8 to 10 hours a day playing the old tapes into the computer to convert them into usable digital files for the future. I am in a race against time and I think I am losing. There are about 5000 tapes in all and since I started to save the archives I have encoded over 1800. I went through 6 various digital 8 cameras, running them into the ground.

Once encoded I need to store these digital files onto hard drives. The work never ends. Once I have a tape encoded it usually has 2 to 3 bands on it, these files must be broken up into the individual bands and put into directories with the dates on them. Many groups have more than one concert so tagging them this way has to happen to find them. Right now I am working with 5 drives each with 4 terabytes of data on them. 2 of them live to work on. But I realize I have to back up these drives too! It NEVER ends if I want to keep the archives safe. So I need to get more drives just for backup. Right now 4TB drives are around 250 euros each. I could use 10 of these. 5 to backup what is on now and 5 to save more files on.

I am reaching 75 years old and this is not what I thought I would be doing at this juncture. I live a very frugal lifestyle as I only get a minimal social security payment to live on each month. To make this work I live in Spain way out in the mountains so that the rent and utilities are at a minimum and I grow much of my own food stuffs. I hate to ask people for donations, I have always been able to do for myself whatever is needed. But age really sucks and no one lets you work at my age. The body is starting to fail. September and October disappeared for me as my gall balladeer went gangrene and had to be ripped from my body. I have recovered enough to get back to work and have added hundreds of new bands and songs to the channels.

If you enjoyed seeing a band, enjoyed seeing yourself on stage again, take some time to donate to this cause and help me get more memories available? If you had a band that I have posted on YouTube you know how much your history matters.