New 'DNA cassette tape' can store up to 1.5 million times more data than a smartphone — and the data can last 20,000 years if frozen

Directly above view of some multi colored audio cassette tapes on gray background.

Running out of space on your phone? Don't upgrade your cloud-storage subscription just yet. Scientists in China have discovered that images, text files and other digital data can be stored in strands of DNA fused to a 330-foot-long (100 meters) plastic strip capable of holding the equivalent of 3 billion songs.

It's a far cry from a device that Microsoft built in 2016, which managed to squeeze 200 megabytes of data into a dab of DNA "much smaller than the tip of a pencil."