ya know, i'm really glad this was brought up because i've been wondering this lately myself.
the concept of 'master' seems to have become more or less a psychological thing when trading digital music which is lossless and identical to what was recorded digitally in the first place. and especially now that trading flacs of shows with an additional text file disclosing the exact lineage and other details about the show has become customary, theoretically anyone could claim to be the taper of something digitally recorded. especially if it hasn't been circulated much.
...and now that i think of it, calling the person who recorded the preformance the "taper" is a bit of an obsolite term now, too-- since the majority of recordings now are digital, not analogue, and therefore tape recording is simply a thing of the past. (although with that said i plan to test out a sony D-6 i found at a yardsale the other day at a concert coming up...)
i havent recorded many things and i am a relatively new collector/trader. but if i was an active taper who started decades ago, i dont think i would be able to trade my master tapes because of sentimental value... maybe that's just to be expected or perhaps im just a hoarder...
well i suppose i'll go to my etree list and proclaim all of the recordings with purely digital lineages to be masters !!
cheers
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