Beginning in April 2022, Norwegian-based business consultant agency Elire Management Group will begin the process of safekeeping the world’s “most precious and loved” music. Starting with the Beatles and ceremonial Indigenous music derived from Australia, Elire will store the recording 1,000 feet underground inside a doomsday vault capable of withstanding both natural and man-made disasters, including nuclear warfare.
Located on an Arctic island midway between Norway and the North Pole, the Global Music Vault will sustain the recordings through the use of binary coding and high-density QR codes written onto special durable optical film that will allow for more than 1,000 years of preservation.
In partnership with the Paris branch of the International Music Council, Elire will form a global committee that will work with national music groups across countries to choose these “most precious and loved” recordings. The public will also be afforded the chance to vote for the recordings to be enclosed in the Global Music Vault—with clearance from the rights holders.
Luke Jenkinson, managing director of the Global Music Vault and managing partner at Elire, said in a statement,
“We want to preserve the music that has shaped us as human beings and shaped our nations. We don’t want to just protect a certain genre and certain era. We want the nations and regions of the world to curate what music gets deposited.”
Learn more about the Global Music Vault, including how to contribute, here.
H/T: Billboard
Featured image: Spencer Lowell
