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If it is stored in the kind of environment you would want to live in than the tape should last indefinitely. Tapes can start to have chemical issues though. For instance the early prosumer EAIJ fromat tapes tend to have an issue with the glue that holds the magnetic particles to the tape degrading and making the surface of the tape too sticky to run through the decks. These and some of the 2" quadraplex tapes need to be cleaned before playing or both tape and deck will be damaged. After cleaning these tapes will be just as good as new.
As a further example of taped signal not degrading take the few surviving reels of pre-WWII, and post war paper tape. These will still play with the same sound quality as when recorded decades ago.
I even have several spools of recording wire with material from the 50's that still sounds real good.
About the only thing that will damage the signal of a tape recording (short of mutlating the the tape or recording over it) is to expose it to a strong magnetic field (an AC field or a DC field can both do similar harm if strong enough).
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