The End of the Definitive Recording

Every musician knows the moment. After weeks, months, sometimes years of writing, recording, editing, overdubbing, mixing, second-guessing, remixing, mastering, unmastering, remastering, and listening to the same thirty-two bars until you are no longer sure whether you even like music, somebody finally says the magic words: This is the master. It is done. Nobody touch anything… (Insert sound of a “whoop” in the background)
For most of the history of recorded music,