Stephen Goodman brings up an interesting point [061130 MMDigest].
Paper rolls are now more than just fragile, and the conversion to
MIDI files seems today to be the only way to save the music.  My own
experience with organ player rolls shares his of finding that rewind
certainly is where the most damage has and can occur.

Also, edge guiding by metal fingers soon frays the sides of the paper
to the point where the automatic centering gets out of whack.  I cite
the Aeolian Duo-Art ten-roll Concertola and the Welte Multi- Roll as
being particularly prone to shred the rolls on rewind, from long time
personal experience.  One simply has to slow them down.

Computer recorded CD-ROM disks come in many grades of quality.  Cheap
disks from, say, Radio Shack or Fry's Electronics, are not so hot --
there are much better disks for archival storage that are guaranteed
for at least fifty years, and tests seem to have proven this out.

Sure, they cost more, but so what?!  Who really cares if the disk costs
$3.00 each vs. $.50 each when one is talking about saving great music
by artists that never can be heard any other way.  In the organ world,
there were supreme orchestral players who never made phonograph
records, because phono recordings were lousy in those days and could
not begin to record the full tonal range of the pipe organ.  The only
way to hear their artistry today is by these player organ rolls that
they recorded.

With digital storage on these disks, the data can be copied time and
time again with no degradation.  Simply re-record the CD-ROMs every
twenty five years and they sure will last for ages.  A lot longer than
we will.

Jim Crank