The interesting thing is, that based on several criteria: Lifespan (and absence of natural deterioration); ease of data recovery; obviousness that the artifact contains data and how to retrieve that data...the best choice would seem to be the shellac disc! However, nobody makes them, or even makes the equipment to make them!
Almost two years ago, on 2003-04-01, NPR reported that this was indeed the future of sound recording. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1216161
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Vignettes Media web: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/ Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX