Music reproduction is a chain of copies: notation, mechanical instruments, cylinders, discs, tape, CDs, MP3 files, streaming libraries, rights systems, and preservation problems. Mira and Theo follow how each format changed who could hear music, who could sell it, who could copy it, and what survives when the medium decays. Created with Gemini Notebook. The conversation and voices in this episode were generated with Gemini Notebook.

Sources cited:

- A Brief History of Music Publishing | Songtrust: https://blog.songtrust.com/brief-history-of-the-music-publishing

- About This Program | National Recording Preservation Plan | Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/about-this-program/

- Timeline | National Recording Preservation Plan | Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/historical-background/timeline/

- Historical Background | National Recording Preservation Plan | Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/historical-background/

- History of Recorded Sound | Center for Popular Music: https://popmusic.mtsu.edu/includes-historyofrecordedsound/

- Preservation of Digitally Recorded Sound | CLIR: https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/sound/

- RIAA Reports: US Recorded Music Annual Revenue Achieves New High of $11.5 Billion in 2025: https://www.riaa.com/riaa-reports-us-recorded-music-annual-revenue-achieves-new-high-of-11-5-billion-in-2025/

Gemini Notebook still listed three sources as `Just a moment...`; they are not cited above.