Is Your Music Safe?

I was reading the latest edition of Rolling Stone and I wanted to give the highlights of an article by David Browne.

Five Tips on preserving your digital collection.

1. BACK IT UP. Hard drives fail so keep everything backed up on an external hard drive.

2. FUTURE-PROOF YOUR TUNES. With a terabyte of storage available for under $75, there's no reason to compress files to low quality MP3's anymore.

3. CD-RS AREN'T SAFE. Avoid burning your music onto data CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. They can last as little as three to five years if they're left in the sunlight and if it wasn't good quality to begin with.

4. SAVE YOUR CDS - Don't toss your CD collection yet, as experts agree that most discs in your collection should last for another 30 - 40 years.

5. AIM FOR THE CLOUD. Consider backing up your music with a remote online "cloud" system.