One of the biggest collections of field recordings is to go online. The Association for Cultural Equity is to begin streaming 17,000 tracks recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, including music from Britain, Ireland, the US, the Caribbean and the former USSR.

Arguably the world's second most famous folklorist (after his father, John), Lomax spent much of the 20th century collecting and promoting folk music. He founded the association in 1983, aiming to "explore and preserve the world's expressive traditions". Even before Lomax's death, in 2002, the organisation had begun digitising his vast archive. According to the New York Times, it comprises more than 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 ft of film and 3,000 videotapes.

This month, Lomax's inheritors will unveil a website of his recordings, the Global Jukebox, allowing visitors to listen for free. While some of this music has been licensed for previous compilations, most is unheard. The association also plans to sell MP3s and CDs through the site.

"This project has evolved as the technology has evolved," Lomax's daughter, Anna Lomax Wood, told the New York Times. In addition to sound recordings, she hopes to make available her father's footage of international dance styles, "the biggest private collection of dance film anywhere, and from everywhere".

Although Lomax's name is not as well known as some of the musicians he helped discover, including Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, his work continues to have an enormous influence. He introduced Pete Seeger to The Lion Sleeps Tonight, recorded Vera Hall's Trouble So Hard (made famous by Moby), and his recordings will even be featured on Bruce Springsteen's forthcoming album, Wrecking Ball.