Bay Area/ San Francisco/ Arts & Culture
Published on November 22, 2017
Internet Archive To Preserve, Share Unsold 'Recycled Records' InventoryPhoto: Beatrice Murch/Flickr

If you were worried about the loss of Recycled Records' inventory now that owner Bruce Lyall is retiring and selling his building, fear not.

As reported by CBS early this week, Lyall came to an agreement to give the collection—including some records so obscure they haven't sold in decades—to the Internet Archive, a 21-year-old local nonprofit dedicated to preserving information and cultural artifacts.

Housed in a former Christian Science church, the archive already hosts more than 400 million audio recordings, including live concerts, poetry readings, radio broadcasts, and more. Audio files hosted by the archive are available to stream and, in some cases, to download.

In addition to warehousing cultural data and documenting the changing landscape of the internet, the archive has dedicated itself to being a benchmark in public access to information and documenting the truth, most recently highlighted in its exhaustive archival of things Donald Trump has said.

The Internet Archive contains thousands of albums that were donated by Lyall in years past. As of this writing, there are 4,904 album recordings in the Recycled Records online repository, including artists like Peter Frampton, Ella Fitzgerald, and a great deal of audio ephemera.

“Recycled Records is happy to have directed the donation of many thousands of LPs to the Internet Archive to help with their projects and for the love of music,” said Lyall in 2014.

As we previously reported, Borderland Books successfully raised $1.9 million from investors to purchase the building that housed Recycled Records. New owner Alan Beatts told Hoodline in October that he was seeking a short-term tenant for the space.