If you haven’t decided on a backup solution for your digital music, or want to discover alternative storage options, here are some of the best ways to keep your media files safe. Flash drives come in various storage capacities such as 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and larger, and can hold a reasonable amount of music files. For example, a 2 GB flash drive can store approximately 1000 songs (based on a song being 3 minutes long with a bit rate of 128 kbps). The amount of cloud storage that you can use typically depends on cost. Many file hosting services offer free space that can range from 1 GB to 50 GB or more. If you have a small collection, this could be all that you need. However, if you have a large media library, you’ll probably need to upgrade by paying a monthly fee for extra storage (sometimes unlimited). The only downsides with storing files using this format are that discs can become scratched (and you’ll need a CD/DVD repair kit) and that the materials used can degrade over time (so you’ll need to protect your optical media with ECC).
