The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes

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The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes​

Sitting at his studio console in New Jersey one afternoon this past spring, Kelly Pribble opened a yellowed cardboard box and pulled out a master audio tape by the jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley from 1975.

“A horrible year for tape,” he groaned.

Holding his eye close to the quarter-inch reel as he rolled it through a playback machine, Pribble noticed telltale signs of what he called “adhesion syndrome”: Parts of the tape were stuck together on their spool. Without special treatment, this studio recording of “Lovers” — a slice of funky jazz fusion recorded shortly before Adderley’s death — would be unplayable, the original music lost.

More:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/arts/music/iron-mountain-audio-tape-preservation.html