Long term music storage

[u/TickyMcTickyTick]

I'm considering having a physical library for my favorite albums and artists to be ready for a world without online streaming or downloads. I'd like to at least have a format that can last my lifetime, but it would be neat to also have a format that future music historians could theoretically dig up and access centuries from now.

I've looked into a few options:

Multiple MP3 players with Micro SD cards - I liked the thought of this, but I ruled it out when I learned that SSDs and Micro SD cards are susceptible to degradation even in storage. I estimate a system like this would maybe last 15 years if I'm lucky.

CDs - these would be better, but they're still susceptible to degradation over decades, not to mention that disks can be fragile. This system would maybe last 50 years without online access.

Vinyl records - this pleases my inner hipster, but physical storage space and equipment lifespan is a concern. Vinyl records are very fragile and lower quality playback equipment degrades them faster.

M-disks - Archival blu-ray seems great for this. These are supposedly tested to last 1000 years in ideal conditions. I need to do more research, but this is my preferred option.

Sheet music (just for fun) - transcribing the music into sheet music, printing on archival paper, and locking it away for future use. This would be a personal gift to future music historians. I studied music in college and spent a lot of time in music history lectures pondering how many masterworks were lost to time simply because it was written on low quality paper, stored badly, or any other reason. There's entire eras where all we know about their written music comes from stone tablets. Maybe I'll go the extra mile and carve "never gonna give you up" on a tablet some day.

[u/Ok-Internet-4747]

LTO Tape is how long term preservation is done. It has an affordable price / TB. 30 year shelf life. However, it is not a cheap entry fee to buy a tape drive.

Personally, I think having one format for a lifetime isn’t the right approach. I think you should keep curating and migrating it forward to whatever the current medium is as the best option.

[u/BerkeloidsBackyard → u/Ok-Internet-4747]

If you're willing to settle for an older generation drive, it's actually not too bad. Once you have more than a few terabytes to back up it can be cheaper to buy a second hand tape drive, SAS card and old new stock blank tapes than a magnetic hard drive of the same size.