Audio Guidance: Condition of Materials and Storage

How Do I Know If My Materials Are In Good Condition?

Audio: Condition Assessment

• Common Problems and Remedies
• Life Expectancy of Materials
• More Information

What are common problems with audio formats, and remedies?

See tables for each media type:

• Grooved Recordings Condition Assessment
• Magnetic Media Audio Condition Assessment
• Optical Disc Condition Assessment

How long will audio materials last?

Life expectancy of audio media is dependent on factors including:

• Material composition and reaction
• Storage conditions over time
• Handling over time

It is difficult to accurately predict a media’s usable lifespan. This is further complicated by the fact that media can change considerably between manufactured batches. But history has at least given some indication of what to expect.

• Magnetic tapes stored under archival conditions (National Archives and Records Administration example) generally have a lifespan of about 10 to 50 years before exhibiting difficult to handle decay. Somewhere in the middle is most common. Those stored under lesser conditions and not handled carefully will probably have a significantly shorter life span.
• Grooved recordings vary in composition and life expectancy. In general, laminated discs tend to be shorter lived. Wire recordings, aluminum discs, and LPs/45s can last possibly for generations if kept under favorable conditions and handled well.
• Optical media come in two general categories: recordable and pressed. Pressed are generally fairly durable and can last possibly for generations if kept under favorable conditions and handled well. Recordable optical media have widely varying life expectancies. It is not entirely uncommon to have some unreadable discs in less than one year. Relying on recordable discs to last for generations is probably not viable. Note however that there are manufacturers creating discs intended for archiving using more inert recording and/or reflective layers. One such new technique uses a “glassy carbon” type recording layer as opposed to organic dyes.

See the Image Permanence Institute calculatorsto view how varying temperature, relative humidity, and dew points relate and affect life expectancy.

Where can I find more information?

Information for Grooved Recordings

• Care, Handling, and Storage of Audio Visual Materials From the Library of Congress
• The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States From the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and The Library of Congress
• Preserving Gramophone Discs From the National Archives of Australia
• Sound Savings: Preserving Audio Collections From the University of Texas at Austin

Information for Magnetic Media

• FACET: The Field Audio Collection Evaluation Tool By Mike Casey, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University
• The Preservation of Magnetic Tape Collections: A Perspective Final Report to the National Endowment for the Humanities by the Image Permanence Institute. If considering printing, please note that this report is 70 pages long.
• Restoration Tips & Notes, Media Formats & Resources By Richard L. Hess

​Information for Optical Discs

• Conditions that Affect CDs and DVDs From the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
• Protect Your DVDs and CDs From the State Archives of North Carolina