MuchMusic has a long history of content that could have been lost as the world entered its digital era. To prevent that from happening, Bell Media, its parent company is in the process of digitizing its immense library.
According to The Canadian Press, Bell is in the final stages of this process of transferring legacy physical media to a digital archive.
"Basically, any interview with any artist you could imagine," Justin Stockman, vice president of Bell's content development and programming said.
For years, the physical media collected dust in a building now owned by Bell Media in Toronto. Due to its sheer size, there began to be an overflow of videotapes.
Included in the digital archive will be programs such as "Too Much 4 Much" and "Snow Job," while parts of the daily "Videoflow" in which on-camera journalists would introduce certain music videos.
"At some point, you've got to pick what's valuable and what's not. And anything that was a noteworthy moment or interview is being captured," Stockman said, adding that the process was about 70 per cent completed. The digitization has been ongoing for "several years."
Some of the digitized footage has already been used in newer pieces of media. MuchMusic's coverage of Woodstock '99 was partially seen in the Netflix docuseries Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 while its interview with Kurt Cobain has millions of views.
While Stockman couldn't give an exact date on when the archival process would be completed, the preservation of older media is certainly a welcome addition to the MuchMusic lore.
No word yet on if the public will have access to this content once it's digitized, or if it will live on YouTube or some other platform.