Author Topic: CDs Last Forever?  (Read 3897 times)

kosmo vinyl

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CDs Last Forever?
« on: May 20, 2004, 09:41:00 am »
Anyone else find CDs in their collection that have begun self destruction?  Recently I've come across two CD that haven't been played in awhile which have become partly unplayable due to the the shiny aluminium layer eroding.  I recall early problem with CDs disintegrate which caused quite a hubbub but haven't heard of any for awhile.
 
 On one CD the aluminium in one area along out edge has become speckled meaning the last two tracks can't be played with skipping.
 
 The other is a bit more annoying... It's a CDR which has become see through with a large brown spot on the edge.  It's annoying because it's a "rare" self released demo disk for Kara's Flowers who have become quite popular as Maroon5. With Kara's Flowers debut cd fetching well above $20 on Ebay. I'd figure this one would fetch a hefty sum except for the fact that three of the songs cause the cd player to choke and the DVD player in the g4 dosen't recognize.
 
 With electronic distribution CDs could become obsolete, but as with vinyl there will still be plenty of material that could be lost forever or not moved into that medium.  I'll beat that properly stored and cared for vinyl records will out last cds... Of course we'll all be ipod people brainwashed by jobs.
T.Rex

Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2004, 09:50:00 am »
No ipod for me. It's cd's, vinyl, an cassettes til my death.

brennser

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2004, 09:52:00 am »
kosmo
 
 very timely - there was an article about this in a paper recently - lemme see if I can track it down

Chip Chanko

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2004, 10:03:00 am »
I remember seeing that article. It was online somewhere (either nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, or cnn.com...i think cnn.com).
 
 The guy they were spotlighting (who lost his whole collection due to cd rot) didn't seem like someone who takes care of his cd's. Maybe it's because he looked like a mountain man. I think he had them all in boxes in a shed or something and was complaining about how that ruined them. Hmm. Didn't seem like he listened to them out in his shed much anyway.
 
 The article also talked about how keeping then vertical in jewel cases should minimize any harm. Keeping them in books opens them up to moisture, etc., more. They also talked about dvds and how it's harmful if you have to keep bending them to snap them out of their cases.

Chip Chanko

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2004, 10:08:00 am »

chaz

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2004, 10:12:00 am »
Yes I always wondered how long my cd's would last.  When they first came out people said they would "go bad" eventually but I never believed them.
 
 I still buy lots of cd's but I also download too.  I'm a big fan of itunes.  The actual physical product gets less and less important to me as time goes by (although i still dig it).  
 
 I got my ipod about one year ago and for me, there is no life after the ipod.  When this one dies i'll get another.  It's changed the way I listen to music and has in many ways re-ignited my interest in music.  Not that I ever lost interst, but I just don't have nearly as much free time as I used to and can't just sit around and listen to records for hours and hours anymore.  Now I've got most of the collection with me all the time and can enjoy it anyplace and anytime.
 
 I think I'll always like buying cd's though just for the product and shopping buzz aspect of it.  The means of distributing music is changing...Who knows what we'll be doing to buy music in 10 or 20 years.

sonickteam2

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2004, 11:14:00 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Sacktastic Bag O' Nuts:
  No ipod for me. It's cd's, vinyl, an cassettes til my death.
I wont ever buy an ipod either. but I bet you'll be able to get one at your local american wal-mart by 2010.
   i feel like ipods are more for people who want to listen to music, but dont want to spend hours organizing all thier songs. if i just had all my music in one neat little package, i would need a new hobby or another girlfriend or something to take up my time!

brennser

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2004, 11:16:00 am »
Quote
i feel like ipods are more for people who want to listen to music, but dont want to spend hours organizing all thier songs.  
who wants to spend hours organizing all their songs?? not me
 
 my ipod is great - probably the single best thing I've ever bought

godsshoeshine

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2004, 11:38:00 am »
i don't have an ipod yet, but its only a matter of time. i have my entire collection ripped to a firewire hard drive, so its not like i put cds on at home or anything. if i want to spend hours nerdily reorganizing my collection, i just paste the cd covers into itunes.
o/\o

Bags

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2004, 11:42:00 am »
Quote
Originally posted by sonickteam2:
  I wont ever buy an ipod either. but I bet you'll be able to get one at your local american wal-mart by 2010.
 
Already available at Target....
 So how do you spend your time organizing your music -- not sure I understand that.

chaz

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2004, 11:43:00 am »
Quote
Originally posted by sonickteam2:
 
   i feel like ipods are more for people who want to listen to music, but dont want to spend hours organizing all thier songs. if i just had all my music in one neat little package, i would need a new hobby or another girlfriend or something to take up my time! [/QB]
You can still spend hours obsessing over your cd collection...I still do sometimes.  No you can just take it with you.

Chip Chanko

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2004, 11:44:00 am »
i agree...ipod=best thing i've ever bought (besides my apartment).
 
 
Quote
Originally posted by brennser:
   
Quote
i feel like ipods are more for people who want to listen to music, but dont want to spend hours organizing all thier songs.  
who wants to spend hours organizing all their songs?? not me
 
 my ipod is great - probably the single best thing I've ever bought [/b]

Chip Chanko

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2004, 11:45:00 am »
although...all the music i've paid for over the years is probably more important...
 
 
Quote
Originally posted by Chip Chanko:
  i agree...ipod=best thing i've ever bought (besides my apartment).
 
   
Quote
Originally posted by brennser:
   
Quote
i feel like ipods are more for people who want to listen to music, but dont want to spend hours organizing all thier songs.  
who wants to spend hours organizing all their songs?? not me
 
 my ipod is great - probably the single best thing I've ever bought [/b]
[/b]

sonickteam2

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2004, 12:36:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by Bagalicious Tangster:
   
Quote
Originally posted by sonickteam2:
  I wont ever buy an ipod either. but I bet you'll be able to get one at your local american wal-mart by 2010.
 
Already available at Target....
 So how do you spend your time organizing your music -- not sure I understand that. [/b]
well, i could go all in depth. there are all different ways to organize songs. I have a library of everything i have, randomly. then i have my 80s stuff, electronica, old punk, and even put together an A to Z set of CDs a while back for when we drove across country.
 
   things like that.
 
   plus, not having an ipod makes me feel a little less like "todays american culture"  :)
 
   besides, i already have an mp3 player at work, home and car.

vansmack

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Re: CDs Last Forever?
« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2004, 02:21:00 pm »
What I find odd about this is that I distinctly remember companies telling consumers that CDs would not last forever, stating that the average life of a cd was somewhere between 20-30 years.
 
 It was magnified later when the CD-R became popular and they said the life of a CDR was about 10 years.  I'll be honest though, with todays mass produced CDRs I'm getting about 2 years life out of most of them.
 
 I don't have any CDs that are twenty years old yet (New Order - Substance, purchased in 1986 will be 20 years old soon) and I have yet to experience the problems described in the article or by Kosmo with CD Rot in any of my 1,000 store bought CDs.  I do take maticulous care of my CDs, never use books or sleeves, alternate between hoizontal filing and vertical filing every two years out of fear that one may be better than the other, though I'm not sure which, and I never store them near any heaters or appliances.
 
 I have lost a lot more music through hard drive failure than CD Rot, and probably twice as much vinyl through groove wear than anything else.  Of course groove wear was 30-40 years, not the 20-30 they're talking about for CDs.  
 
 I rip nearly every CD I own to a USB/Firewire drive, but I'm getting tired of HD failure - I've gone through 4 of them, only twice was I lucky enough to copy over before the faiure.
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