Last year, Bob Dylan recorded a new version of his iconic 1962 song “Blowin’ in the Wind” with producer and longtime collaborator T Bone Burnett. The updated track was then etched onto a one-of-a-kind Ionic Original disc—a new high quality analog audio format developed by Burnett. Now, the sole copy of the recording has sold at Christie’s London-based auction house for £1,482,000 (roughly $1,769,508 or €1,733,940). The estimated bidding price was £600,000-1,000,000.
“Marshall McLuhan said that a medium surrounds a previous medium and turns the previous medium into an art form, as film did with novels, as television did with film, as the internet has done with television, and as digital has done with analogue,” Burnett said in a press release announcing the Christie’s sale. He continued:
Peter Klarnet, Christie’s Senior Specialist of Americana, books, and manuscripts, added: “We are so pleased with the excellent result this evening for the Ionic Original disc of Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ since 1962. To work with such an incredibly important and groundbreaking advance in analogue playback technology is a tremendous honor. We are excited that this is just the beginning for this amazing new opportunity for recording artists to work with T Bone and NeoFidelity to reset the value of music.”
“Blowin’ in the Wind” originally appeared on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Dylan’s new version of the song marks his first studio recording of it since tracking the original 60 years ago. The updated single is also the debut recording to be released as an Ionic Original.
Burnett developed Ionic Originals as a high-quality audio technology that comes in the form of one-of-a-kind aluminum discs. Each unique disc is painted with lacquer featuring “a spiral etched into it by music.”
Dylan recently wrapped up a string of tour dates behind his last LP Rough and Rowdy Ways. His next book, titled The Philosophy of Modern Song, is due in early November.