Clearly, the moment you play your tune out for the first time it ceases to be yours alone as players (or so the musician hopes) incorporate it into the vast treasury of what has gone before. A musician's greatest achievement is to have the courage to add to our cultural heritage. But the greatest nightmare is to have it buggered up or, even worse, labelled 'f*lk music', a meaningless, way-past-sell-by term.

Of course a recording is a mere snapshot in time. A further example of digital advance aiding musicality is that different takes at different times can be compared bit by bit (as it were). Should you want to.