Eh. Archival-grade optical discs stored in near-ideal conditions should have a useful lifespan of 1000+ years. Most of the analog storage media, even under near-ideal conditions, are likely far less than that. Is most of the digital information being stored on archival-grade optical discs? No. Will we be able to read them in 100+ years? Probably also no, since we already can’t access some of the data from the Apollo missions because computer architecture has changed so radically. And that’s probably the biggest single drawback to digital music storage; since the way files are being written and accessed keeps changing, eventually the old standards won’t be supported any more. As it is, there are probably a lot of minidiscs out there that no one can read anymore, since minidisc has gone the way of the dodo and passenger pigeon.
Eh. Archival-grade optical discs stored in near-ideal conditions should have a useful lifespan of 1000+ years. Most of the analog storage media, even under near-ideal conditions, are likely far less than that. Is most of the digital information being stored on archival-grade optical discs? No. Will we be able to read them in 100+ years? Probably also no, since we already can’t access some of the data from the Apollo missions because computer architecture has changed so radically. And that’s probably the biggest single drawback to digital music storage; since the way files are being written and accessed keeps changing, eventually the old standards won’t be supported any more. As it is, there are probably a lot of minidiscs out there that no one can read anymore, since minidisc has gone the way of the dodo and passenger pigeon.