WDW Archive

A Farewell

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:32:50 -0400

Hey everyone! There hasn’t been much activity for the past 2-3 years, and I’m not sure I’ll ever work on another music collection or something else related in the future, so it’s probably time for me to say goodbye.

The domain for WDW Archive expires on April 2, so this blog will revert to a Tumblr domain (wdwarchive.tumblr.com). The YouTube channel and Archive.org uploads will remain for anyone who wants to access them, at least until/if they get banished for copyright infringement. I think I have one or two more old albums released by Disney that I’ll upload to Archive.org.

Ultimately, there are people doing a better job of archiving old Disney material and music, like RetroWDW (which sent a copyright takedown to the WDW Archive YouTube channel after I mirrored a video found on Archive.org, without knowing it was from them), MartinsVidsNotNet, widenyourworld, and JPL Studios. My goal was more to remix all available material from different sources into music collections for easily listening, but I never really got around to much of that.

If you’re interested in the stuff I make that I fully own, check out my main site. I also have a podcast about technology history called Tech Tales.

Thanks for all the support over the years!

Ending email subscriptions

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 14:56:20 -0400

Hi everyone! Ever since WDW Archive was created, we’ve had an option to sign up for emails when we published news or new media content. This uses Google FeedBurner, but Google just announced yesterday that the email functionality will be discontinued in July.

If you want to keep up with announcements and new media releases, you can subscribe to the RSS feed with an RSS reader (like Feedly or Inoreader) or follow WDW Archive on Tumblr. If you only care about the new content releases, we have a separate RSS feed for that, which links directly to the Internet Archive entries.

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 15:34:40 -0400

Hey all, just a quick post to let y'all know that wdwarchive.org is being transferred to a new domain registrar, so the website/blog might be inaccessible from there for a while. Be back soon :)

Walt Disney Records Presents: The Official Album

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 14:40:40 -0500

Hey folks! I just uploaded Walt Disney Records Presents: The Official Album to the Internet Archive, one of Disney’s earliest CD compilations released in 1997.

ALT

Most of the tracks from this CD have longer and better versions available elsewhere (e.g. the Grim Grinning Ghosts track from the Haunted Mansion is just the chorus), but it does have a few songs that weren’t released officially elsewhere. To the best of my knowledge, it’s the only official source for the music from IllumiNations 25 B, which played at Epcot from May 19, 1997 to January 31, 1998.

The files are encoded as MP3 at 320 kbps, and because I’ve uploaded this one to the Internet Archive properly as separate files, you can listen to the songs from the webpage without downloading them. You can still download them all in one ZIP by clicking the ‘25 files’ button.

Walt Disney Records Presents: The Official Album (1997)

Fantasyland music collection now available!

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 15:59:46 -0400

We’re happy to finally release our new music collection, Fantasyland: Music from the Magic Kingdom! It’s out second collection, and contains background music and attraction themes from the entire 40+ year history of Fantasyland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

The music has been sourced from multiple official Disney soundtrack releases, as well as unofficial recordings from fans over the years. All tracks have been remixed to remove distortion/background audio and to ensure a consistent audio volume. Some of the music included is from It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and other classic attractions.

In addition to music from Fantasyland, the collection includes themes from Storybook Circus and the former Mickey’s Toontown Fair (the latter of which was converted into Storybook Circus in 2011).

You can download the collection for free from the Internet Archive. Just click the ZIP download option and import it into your music library software of choice (iTunes, YouTube Music/Play Music, Groove, etc.).

Yearlong Millennium Celebration

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:07:18 -0500

Hi all!

I just uploaded a full-quality rip of the “Yearlong Millennium Celebration“ music CD to the Internet Archive. It was a sampler CD distributed as part of an Energizer promotion in 2000, which contains music from Epcot’s “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth” firework show and the “Tapestry of Nations” parade.

This CD is unique because it intersects the Illuminations soundtrack with segments from the Tapestry of Nations parade, and includes a version of “We Go On” that doesn’t match what was played in the park.

You can listen (or download) the CD here. There are already a few copies of it on YouTube, but I might upload it to the WDW Archive channel as well.

More music on the way!

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 23:48:25 -0400

Hi all,

I promised a Fantasyland music collection a while ago, and it’s still coming! I’ve had difficulty finding online sources for several music tracks (in high quality, anyway), so I ordered some old official albums from eBay. In addition to using them as sources for WDW Archive collections, I’ll be uploading them to the Internet Archive and sharing the links here.

Coming soon!

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 00:15:13 -0400

Coming soon!