"New" does not always mean "better." Ask the preservation office at the Library of Congress or any University library...or large public library for that matter. If you REALLY want an earful, ask an archivist.

Believe it or not, magnetized tape can erase itself over time. Here comes the interesting part: preservationists are finding the CDs can also! Vinyl, glass, wax, and similar recordings do not.

As for various floppy discs and zip discs -- Hoh boy! The Library of Congress and the National Archives have spent BIG BUCKS to continue to be able to read these things! When, for instance, was the last time you saw a Dictaphone belt? -- now suppose that something like Mark Twain's last and greatest novel was on one (yeah, yeah, I know).

Humanity has never, ever, totally eliminated a way of storing information (storing, not sending). If you doubt this SCROLL down any page or SCROLL through a reel of microfilm, look at the inscriptions on recent gravestones or the impressions in bricks bought by folks for a memorial. The languages and alphabets may have changed, but those are scrolls, chiseling into stone, and baked clay tablets.