Because the record labels couldn’t justify keeping them around, countless thousands of analog master tapes now survive in Iron Mountain’s storage vaults.

It's a shame that almost no one has ever heard these heritage recordings played back in their true highest fidelity.

Thankfully, some people are working to change this. The obvious first step is stopping the destruction and loss of these irreplaceable tapes.

Here’s what’s on the Iron Mountain website in July, 2025:

“We understand the fragility of older audio carriers and the risk of playback damage, which is why we use well-maintained vintage decks and carefully customized workflows to ensure safe transfer.”

It's beyond alarming that Iron Mountain’s music industry customers still don't comprehend that one thing you should never do with a fragile, chemically-degrading master tape, is play it back on a vintage studio tape machine. Doing that has destroyed many tapes and damaged countless others.

To learn about what’s being done to help preserve these classic recordings, check out the mission of the non-profit Foundation for Recorded Music Preservation at: recordedmusicpreservation.org

Audio Transfer Laboratory has been advancing the science of analog magnetic audiotape playback and domain transfer since 1986.