You do know sound records can and do get lost over time for various reasons. Many of the very early sound recordings are lost because of the material they were (the Smithsonian has done some preservation of that early stuff, but much of it was already gone). And in the period during the war, we were unable to get the material to make 78s, so people were asked to turn in their old recordings to be melted down in order to make new ones - who knows how much was lost because there was only one run made and lots of folks turned them in so they could buy new records. The existence of a recording doesn’t ensure its longevity, nor does it preserve the larger historical context of the production, either.
Plus, I’m not sure you guys know how UNESCO works… They’re there to point out and highlight cultural artifacts, tangible and intangible to ensure that they are preserved with their historical context. The sound recordings by themselves only tell you so much about the larger historical context.
