I'm sharing my dining room with a treasure trove: 17 tubs of reel-to-reel tapes of FSGW concerts, dating from the early 1960s to the early '90s. FSGW has tentatively agreed to give them to the Library of Congress, and the LoC has tentatively agreed to take them. I hope to make this happen soon.

Before the tapes get to the LoC, should I try to do something else with them?

I've talked with several people about this. Some think we should make one or more compilation CDs, maybe by theme, maybe by decade. Some think we should make smaller digital tracks and sell them through some web site. Others think that the amount of work involved, especially finding artists and negotiating permissions and royalties, would be great enough to make the whole idea a non-starter.

So, here's my basic question: Would enough people find this interesting enough to make it worth the effort?

What do I mean by 'interesting enough'? I'm not quite sure, but I know that it includes finding enough people to volunteer to do all the various parts of the work and then finding enough people to buy the product.

And the next question: If it's worth the effort, what would be the best product? Compilation CD? A bunch of CDs? A bunch of iTunes songs? Some podcasts? Something else?