Hi Matt:

When I replied to your e-mail, it correctly replied to the ARSC List. Very mysterious how this 
"reply-to" stuff works!

Regarding your comments, I too have noticed a slowdown in grant funding for audio transfer work. I 
think this macro-relates to how money has dried up in the music business. The culture is not as 
interested in recordings as it was 20 years ago, and therefore the amount of time and money the 
population at large are willing to spend on sound recordings has dwindled. If you look at audio pro 
magazines, they spend more and more time on live-sound work and game-sound design and production, so 
I assume those parts of the professional engineering market are doing better than A-D transfer work 
and even "old-school" production like mastering, mixing and studio recording. I find the trees have 
to be shaken harder and more frequently for good gigs to fall out of them.

I very much agree with you that it's sad, because tapes don't last forever and the culture that 
turns its back on its heritage and closes off access to the past often limps along to doom, and then 
regrets it all too late.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Sohn" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Techs in the future - Re: [ARSCLIST] Article: Testing Old Tapes For 
Playability


> >(Matt, replies still go only to you so I changed to the list address.)
>
> I sent my reply from the email page on my ATT home. There seems to be no way to change the 
> Reply-To setting. I am sending this reply from my Windows Live Mail (which also seems to have no 
> way to change the Reply-To setting). Please let me know if the Reply-To address for this reply is 
> me or the list.
> What a pain..
> -Matt
>
> Regarding techs in the future, I have been doing this work for 15 years and have found it very 
> difficult to find steady work. I have been fortunate to work on several large-scale projects of 
> significant historical value, but in the last several years, grant funding has dwindled and 
> holding entities are unwilling, or unable to fund preservation projects. The most common thing I 
> have heard is "We wish we could hire you, but we have no funding". I get dribs and drabs,  but 
> large projects with adequate funding are few and far between. For the past two years I have been 
> studying web development because my audio preservation work has not been enough to sustain me. 
> Just the other day I saw an article that said there are an estimated 43 million hours of analog 
> tape that has not been preserved. If even 10% of that is content that is historically valuable, 
> that is 400,000 hours. People should be beating down a path to my door, but they aren't. I'm not 
> good at marketing my skills, I'm just an audio geek that loves working with obsolete media. But I 
> don't think that's the reason. The reason is that there are precious little funding available and 
> very little concern for deteriorating assets. In the current economic climate, I do not see this 
> situation improving, and I would be very hesitant to recommend that a student pursue audio 
> preservation as an avocation.
> And that makes me sad.
>
> -Matt Sohn
>
> P.S. Lou, for some reason, your reply to me ended up in my spam folder.
>