Okay. But there is a hierarchy in play here. While I would certainly prefer the easy access of the cloud, I would rank a digital archive on tape above that of the cloud (whether it’s common or not). Even if neither of them count as “analog”, tape still seems more durable and less volatile an option. There have been points made to the contrary above, and I will admit that I don’t find them very compelling.
Am I insisting that tape is “not volatile”? No. Am I ignoring the potential of those tapes being destroyed in a flood or fire? No.
Similarly, I would rank cassette tapes above compact discs. Simply for the reason that a scratch on a compact disc can corrupt all of the data. Even if the tape in a cassette brakes, gets chewed up, or warps, it can still be repaired and played back. Even if the recording is no longer (or never was) up to someone’s snuff.
Multi-head machines are still available to play them, and can be repaired without much difficulty. I come by such machines at thrift stores every few months. There are still a lot of them out there.
Despite their rumored obsolescence, cassettes continue to be relevant to subcultural music genres, and cutting edge electronic music-making. Yes, of course they are all wearing away, and facing imminent doom. *Shrug, so is our species.
Again, I’m not asserting anything about archival quality. It is simply my opinion that more tapes will outlast more digital storage devices. Digital disc and hard drive storage faces many more threats, including the vulnerability of electric grids, user neglect, disposable consumerism, company irresponsibility, world wars, and data corruption by hackers who routinely use data as a hostage.
Even the issue of theft of physical media brought up before does not dissuade me from this opinion, because that physical media will simply be sold or kept in new collections.
Data corruption on a hard drive is not comparable to theft because the loss of the art is total.
Despite all of these caustic and irreparable differences between us, I offer the following short film as my final statement on the matter:
