Records management is the science and the art of gathering and controlling information in all forms.
The principle is to ensure that all important facts are made available to those who must plan and make decisions, while at the same time, the organization is not storing large quantities of old information that will never be used. Records management has nothing to do with the music business, other than like all other business, the music industry needs records management to keep track of all kinds of records. A Sidelight of Records management, and the part that is of most interest to me, is that it is normally where material is selected as being worthy of Historical preservation. With a bit of luck, these gems are removed from the mass of old taxi chits paid invoices and other debris that collects in the file room, and are classified, and often microfilmed to take their place in history. A well managed records program can often protect companies when they are sued, as records that have been destroyed by a consistent program of records management as part of the companies normal way of doing business, may be exempted from the information gathering phase of a legal proceeding.