IFAO

Today, for anyone attempting to establish and update a list of available Arab music archives, the task would not only require the standard work in libraries and archives (both public and especially private) but also taking a fresh look at digital resources. Recently, the web has been used by new heritage preservation entrepreneurs who share common practices, even though they deal with different kinds of music (modern and classical Arab music). This paper traces the history of a set of websites that digitized and spread Arab music which was rarely listened to before the 2000s, except within certain limited circles (on both the social and national levels). Similarly, these websites made a substantial contribution to increasing the availability of well-known songs, since at that time they were almost impossible to find through legal or official channels. This paper aims at identifying this social space (as well as its inner divisions), but also at putting forward tools to analyze the daily practices around these archives, including a type of “bootleg heritage preservation” that they reveal.