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Oh boy, have I finally delved into the treasure-trove that is Archive.org.

My first real taste of Archive.org came I was working on my Senior honors thesis – deep in the archives of Bancroft Library at Cal, I had come across references to a propaganda video that the War Relocation Authority (WRA) showed to various unions and citizens on the West Coast to prepare them for the return of Japanese Americans from internment camps.  It was 1945, WWII was ending, and internment camps were closing and forcing Japanese Americans to decide whether they should relocate to the Midwest or East coast, or return home.  Although younger Japanese Americans headed east, elder Japanese or families tied to small children headed back to their former homes.  Obviously anticipating a hostile response to the return of a group of people who were cast-off as traitors only 3 years earlier, the WRA made a well-informed decision to celebrate the loyalties of Japanese Americans throughout the war, as well as focus on getting unions and laborers to accept the return of Japanese Americans to the workforce.  The WRA showed a clip entitled “Japanese Americans: A Challenge to Democracy” throughout 1945, which proved integral to their public relations campaign throughout the West Coast.  And as I was in the Bancroft Library, I could not help but think about how amazing it would be to find that footage.  Unfortunately, the extensive records of the WRA are held in archives in Bethesda, MD, and my grant money could not possibly afford that trip.  But, lo and behold, I found the video online at Archive.org!  I must had spent a good couple of hours dissecting that film as it proved to be a key primary source for my thesis.  Recalling that moment brings back fond memories of writing my honors thesis, but I digress…

Ah yes, going back to Archive.org.  So I began poking around the site and found an extensive collection of live recordings.  And as someone who seriously does enjoy the music of Jason Mraz, I was happy to see 302 live concert recordings listed to his name.  Sweet!

The files are encoded in Free Loseless Audio Codec (.flac), which is great for archiving live music, but not so great for iTunes.  Thankfully, users before me have discovered how to convert .flac into an iTunes friendly format WITHOUT the loss of quality.

You essentially download 2 plug-ins and 1 application and you’re on your way.  For reference, check out Simplehelp’s simple tutorial on how to achieve aural bliss.