Life and Death in the Universal Library

A rapper in jail watches as his albums slowly get deleted from streaming services because of copyright claims he is unable to fight. A composer gains new popularity, because his sample-heavy work is reissued – and successfully evades those same copyright-sniffing algorithms . A church forbids the transcription of its sacred music, while fans risk excommunication by making illegal scores. Using these and other real-world examples, Jace Clayton's talk will consider the archive as a site of sacrifice – where music is the knife. Legal concerns, social power, technological limitations and sonic pleasure combine to challenge how we think about what – and who – is worth saving.