Paul Long Zelmarie Cantillon Sarah Baker In June 2008, a fire consumed the Hollywood backlot of Universal Studios. Reams of popular music’s recorded history went up in smoke, with the fire destroying thousands of master tapes. Losses included work by artists as disparate as Buddy Holly, Duke Ellington, Iggy Pop and Eric B. & Rakim, as well as many other lesser-known figures whose work may not be available elsewhere. Pondering this loss, Jody Rosen (2019) writes that ‘recorded music is arguably America’s great artistic patrimony, our supreme gift to world culture. How should it be safeguarded? And by whom? ’ This problem reaches beyond the United States and is answered in part by the global abundance of initiatives that have appeared in recent decades devoted to conserving, exhibiting and exploiting the variety of sounds, modes of production and cultures of popular music’s past. These initiatives affirm the innovative ways in...