With analog tape, the reels went into a vault and that was it... when they were needed several years later, you discovered the tape was damaged and several parts of the project were missing and long gone.

Everything began to change in the late 1980s with advent of digital recording technology and the introduction of recording formats like the Mitsubishi X850, Sony DASH machines, DAT, and the New England Digital Synclavier.  Moving into the 1990’s, the industry went through what can be described as a period of digital purgatory which had as a centerpiece, a decade-long debate over media and format standards.  This period saw the birth and extinction of numerous digital recording formats.  The transition from analog to digital commenced for the masses with the Alesis ADAT and was solidified when Digidesign (now Avid) introduced the first 24 bit version of Pro Tools in 1997.

With the new millennium, producers, engineers and record labels began the process of adopting industry standards for delivery and archival of what are now almost 100% digital masters.  In 2003, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Producers & Engineers Wing in concert with the Audio Engineering Society (AES) issued the first Delivery Recommendations for Master Recordings technical document.  This provided a standard and brought continuity to the archival of audio recordings.  While this standard is an ongoing work in progress which has seen several updates in response to emerging technologies, it has remained fundamentally sound in its original purpose:  to provide record labels a way to safely and accurately archive their master recordings.