Ask people now about their storage challenges and most will tell you that they have multiple backups and mirrors and software to manage short term data protection and so on. Some may even talk about version control systems.

Version control is great for tracking when things change rapidly and it allows you to get back to a last known good position whether that's driven creatively or by necessity. They are also very useful when multiple people are working on the same project by providing exclusive locking. Version control however does not solve the long term preservation problem.

Not only do the repositories themselves need to be backed up but most of these systems also rely on a close synchronisation between the data itself and the meta-data that describes it. In most cases a loss of this synchronisation will lead to actual data loss.

Occasionally however someone will talk about a much simpler and ultimately more robust approach. This involves physically printing the audio associated with the project. There is still the problem of preserving this audio but it does have one distinct advantage in that it removes all the dependencies on legacy software, operating systems and hardware platforms.

But what about all those Midi sequences, mixing setups, routing and effect configurations? Back to the old days the more diligent engineers of the day used to keep log books and tracking sheets and in fact using this information you could simply load the master tape and faithfully reproduce the original session even after many years went by.

For evidence of this approach I refer you to the 'Classic Albums' TV series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Albums). For Midi sequences for example I have seen these being physically printed out to hard copy together with the manuscripts. Now of course this may seem to be going back a few steps in the minds of many but it does go a long way to preserving the content and the meta-data that describes it in terms of the longevity problem.

Let's take this one step further. I now refer you to another Sonic Talk, this time Sonic TALK #192  which featured a discussion about the US Library Service being commissioned to examine the best way to preserve recorded music, not just for the now but for many generations to come.

Their subsequent, nearly 200 page report (links in the show notes) paints a dire view of where we are in this space and surprisingly to many people recommends the humble vinyl record as the best way to preserve recorded material.

This is based entirely on the fact that stored in equivalent environmental conditions, vinyl is far more robust than digital formats and just as importantly, the equipment required to reproduce that content is simple and easy to replicate.