The National Recording Preservation Foundation congratulates the artists, songwriters, and composers of the Class of 2024 Inductees to the National Recording Registry. Each year, the Librarian of Congress selects twenty-five sound recordings, chosen from a slate of public nominations, which represent audio treasures worthy of preservation in perpetuity based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance to the nation’s recorded sound heritage. The 2024 inductees were announced today!
The latest selections named to the registry span from 1919 to 1998. They range from the recordings of the all-Black 369th U.S. Infantry Band led by James Reese Europe after World War I, to defining sounds of jazz and bluegrass, and iconic recordings from pop, dance, country, rock, rap, Latin and classical music. Highlights of the 2024 inductees include ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” Blondie’s era-defining “Parallel Lines,” The Notorious B.I.G.’s landmark “Ready to Die,” Green Day’s “Dookie,” The Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” and Lily Tomlin’s comedy. The recordings selected for addition to the National Recording Registry in 2024 bring the number of titles on the registry to 650, representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.
Donate
The new inductees on the National Recording Registry remind us how important it is to extend preservation support for significant, at-risk audio recordings to many more collections that need support. A donation to the National Recording Preservation Foundation supports the work of non-profit audio archives, libraries, and other cultural organizations, to secure the longterm availability of at-risk audio heritage. Donations can be made directly at https://secure.givelively.org/donate/national-recording-preservation-foundation/national-recording-registry-2024.
Since 2012, the NRPF has awarded over a quarter of a million in grants to support unique, at-risk audio collections held by non-profit audio archives, libraries, and other cultural heritage organizations. Read more about our grants at our grants page.
Listen
Listen to many of the recordings on your favorite streaming service. The Digital Media Association (DiMA), a member of the National Recording Preservation Board, compiled a list of some streaming services with National Recording Registry playlists, available at https://dima.org/national-recording-registry-class-of-2024/. You can also hear many of the historic recordings on the Registry via the Library of Congress’ National Jukebox and other listening resources.
Public Nominations for the National Recording Registry
The Librarian selects recordings from recommendations made by the National Recording Preservation Board based on a general call for nominations that may be submitted by the general public. A record 2,899 nominations were made by the public in 2023 for recordings to consider adding to the registry. The public can submit nominations throughout the year on the Library’s web site. Nominations for next year will be accepted until Oct. 1, 2024. The public may nominate recordings for the Registry at https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/nominate/.
Learn More
See the full list of inductees at the press release from the Library of Congress: https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-sounds-of-abba–blondie–the-cars–the-chicks–juan-gabriel/s/29ee4224-3060-4247-a7a4-7deea2c2f816. NPR’s “1A” will feature selections in the series, “The Sounds of America,” about this year’s National Recording Registry, including interviews with Hayden and several featured artists in the weeks ahead. Follow the conversation about the registry on Instagram, Threads and @librarycongress and #NatRecRegistry.
