US EditionVolunteers turn a fan’s recordings of 10,000 concerts into an online treasure trove
Volunteers have digitized 5,500 shows since late 2024, turning Jacobs’s analog archive into a searchable collection on the Internet Archive.
- A group of devoted volunteers is currently digitizing Aadam Jacobs' collection of more than 10,000 concert tapes, uploading the analog recordings to the nonprofit Internet Archive for free streaming and download.
- Jacobs began recording concerts in 1984 after learning he could sneak a tape recorder into shows, eventually amassing over four decades of live music across Chicago and other cities.
- Monthly, Brian Emerick travels from the Chicago suburbs to collect 10 or 20 boxes of tapes, having digitized at least 5,500 shows since late 2024 with volunteer engineers from the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
- The collection features rare performances including a 1989 Nirvana debut show and a 1986 Replacements concert, earning Jacobs recognition from Author Bob Mehr as one of Chicago's "cultural institutions."
- While copyright attorney David Nimmer notes artists technically own the recordings, lawsuits remain unlikely as neither Jacobs nor the archive profit from the ongoing digitization project.
12 Articles
12 Articles
One fan secretly recorded 10,000 concerts over 40 years. Now volunteers are racing to save the tapes before they disintegrate
On July 8, 1989, a young music fan named Aadam Jacobs, with a compact Sony cassette recorder in his pocket, went to see an up-and-coming rock band from Washington for their debut show in Chicago. After a blast of guitar feedback, 22-year-old Kurt Cobain politely announced to the crowd at the small club called Dreamerz: “Hello, we’re Nirvana. We’re from Seattle.” With that, the band, then a quartet, launched into the riff-heavy first song, “Schoo…
Volunteers turn a fan’s recordings of 10,000 concerts into an online treasure trove
On July 8, 1989, a young music fan named Aadam Jacobs, with a compact Sony cassette recorder in his pocket, went to see an up-and-coming rock band from Washington for their debut show in Chicago. After a blast of guitar feedback, 20-year-old Kurt Cobain politely announced to the crowd at the small club called Dreamerz: “Hello, we’re Nirvana. We’re from Seattle.” With that, the band, then a quartet, launched into the riff-heavy first song, “Schoo…
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