Tem a sua razão:
Magnetic tape is still the best archiving support ever made. It is safe and durable (still used in the airplane black boxes)
The real problem about life duration of all media supports, tapes included, is the faster obsolescence of the hardware to play them than the life of the support itself.
Magnetic tape doesn't came obsolete because RtR recorder can ever been built with standard mechanical and electronics components. Technicians and ordinary people go crazy these last years to store all their data every time a new digital system came on the market because of its incompatibility with the precedent one "built to last" . . . some months :-)
Do you remember what happened to the vinyl disc when CD arrived on the market? None factory build turntables more but there were millions vinyl discs still around the world to listen to.
The same thing happened with the reel to reel recorders production stopped when digital recording went on the market. But there are hundred millions hours of recordings on magnetic tapes, not only music but the entire human history of the last century is recorded on analogue audio and video tapes.
Vinyl discs have been discovered again these last years and now many factories are producing again every kind of turntable and vinyl discs.
Many tape recorders have been destroyed in the '90es but many still stay around, jealousy conserved by their owners or restored by technicians and audio analogue lovers like me.
They will became more and more precious in the future.
Todos devem conhecer, mas cá vai mais um site bastante interessante:
http://www.soundfan.it/en/history.html
