Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has recently announced the Friends of Folkways program, which is an opportunity for the public to get involved with and support the preservative digital archive. The program aims to get more people involved with the label through monetary support.
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For at least five dollars a month, members get access to the entire Folkways digital archive. That’s more than 60,000 recordings available to stream straight from the archive. It also includes titles from Folkways’ other labels Arhoolie, Folk-Legacy, Paredon, and more.
The money gathered from donors will go completely toward continually funding the record label and paying artist royalties, according to the Smithsonian Folkways website.
“If we are to remain a label of the people, we need the people’s support,” the label stated on their website. “We need you to raise your voice with ours and become a Friend of Folkways.”
Smithsonian Folkways is a non-profit record label linked with the Smithsonian Institution, which aims to preserve, archive, and disseminate a diverse library of world music and sound. Folkways is part of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, strengthening peoples’ engagement with world culture, history, and heritage. According to the Smithsonian Folkways mission, its catalog “encompasses all sounds of our lives, both monumental and minute.”
Additionally, Smithsonian Folkways provides liner notes for all albums in the archive for free. Plus, they provide supplemental materials and lesson plans for educators to use in classrooms.
The archive was founded in 1948 by recording pioneer Moses Asch and his secretary, Marian Distler, who initiated the company in her name as Asch had gone bankrupt that year. Asch ran Folkways Records from 1948 until his death in 1986, when the label and its recordings were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution. 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of Folkways Records’ inception, and the label is celebrating by reissuing rare recordings and albums as well as new recordings.
One of these new additions is Return to Archive by Matmos. According to a report from Pitchfork, the album will arrive in November, and creates tracks from some of the non-musical entries in the archive. These include animal sounds, office noise, and scenes from everyday life.
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