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The music industry has undergone radical changes since the advent of digital publishing at the turn of the century. Virtually every piece of music published today is released as a digital file, with the previous format de jour, the CD, fading rapidly from view.

While this shift in format has posed a number of challenges to the established music industry, it has been a boon for emerging and underground musicians. As with all aspects of publishing on the internet, the ease and economics of the DIY approach has made it a very attractive option.

The flip side of this ‘virtual’ music is that it can disappear just as easily as it arrived. This is where the Alexander Turnbull Library comes in.

Through a combination of Legal Deposit and actively seeking out New Zealand music across the internet, we are rapidly accumulating a huge collection of great tunes, which we are preserving for posterity in our National Digital Heritage Archive.

Even better, an increasing number of artists are giving us permission to offer access to their music in our collection beyond the confines of the National Library building.

Here are some of my favourites that have recently arrived, and are available to listen to anywhere with an internet connection:

Little Notes / Tiny Ruins

Bristol-born, New Zealand-raised musician and songwriter Hollie Fullbrook has been performing her melancholy folk music as Tiny Ruins since 2009. Little Notes was her first recording, released at the end of 2010. Hollie can be found at tinyruins.com.

Listen | Collection record

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Autumn / The Golden Awesome

The Golden Awesome is a Wellington-based indie rock band, specialising in the lush wall-of-sound music known as shoegaze. Autumn is their debut album, published by the American label M’lady’s Records. (Disclaimer: shameless self-promotion involved - this band features the author of this blog post...) They're on Facebook.

Listen | Collection Record

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Microcosmos / Announce

Announce is the musical alias of NZ School of Music student and composer/sound artist Jason Post. Jason has been releasing Announce music since 2009, specialising in the kind of spectral soundscapes you can hear on Microcosmos. Check him out at jasonpost.info.

Listen | Collection record

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Wreckers and haters / Antony Milton

Wellington postie Antony Milton has been making records, exhibiting sound installations and performing since the early 1990s. He is also the curator of the PseudoArcana record label. Wreckers and haters was released in 2010. Antony's music is on Bandcamp.

Listen | Collection record

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Tracking down open access music

Unfortunately there is not currently a way of identifying the music that is available off-site, however I will be posting regular blogs here highlighting some my favourite open access music that has come into our collection.

If you happen to be on-site at our building in Wellington, there is a wealth of digital music available to stream through this site.

• music,
• audio,
• streaming