What is all this rubbish about keeping files ?

I feel pretty certain that most posters on this thread keep files, or do we call them archives? It's difficult not to if you are a singer or record collector and are sufficiently interested to find out more about the origin/development of the music and the people involved. If nobody kept files our knowledge of the past would be sadly lacking. If you are running a magazine it is impossible NOT to keep files. There is nothing sinister in it.

As for the query on Cecil Sharp, I was quite unaware that he issued recordings by the singers from whom he collected songs. I would like to know how much he paid his informants and how much profit he made was it pennies, pounds hundreds of pounds? But wait he's dead so that's alright then.