Life span of a CD

Days ago, I posted a question asking about dealing with old tape. It was fascinating to read the different experiences and to follow the links for remedies.

I got to thinking about a tech story I saw on TV months ago about gradual data loss on compact discs. Are we to the point yet where we are seeing that happen? What are the variables that determine how great the loss?

In 1985, the first 3 CDs I bought were the "Purple Rain" soundtrack, Mr. Mister and Hall & Oates "Rock 'n Soul Pt. 1." At this point, they still play. Other than the modulation being so much lower than CDs manufactured in the 90's and now, they sound like a new CD (that modulation thing is a whole topic in itself).

What are people doing to preserve their personal collections? Ripping everything onto a hard drive? Uploading to the cloud?

It's interesting that in the long run, vinyl may end up outliving CDs.

I first noticed cd "rot" with a Melissa Manchester CD I owned. When it no longer played I held it up to the light to discover that there were speckles where I could see right through it. I ended up purchasing a replacement for the long out-of-print disc on ebay and guess what? The replacement was almost as bad, but since it played I made a backup copy as I'm sure it will deteriorate like the first copy.

To try to lessen the chance of losing more music I keep the discs in a climate-controlled environment and I've been using the Univenture CD sleeves commonly used by mobile dj's (also, TM Studios ships their PrimeCuts series with these sleeves). I have much of my music backed up across different media - CD-Rs, 15 ips open reel, dbx-encoded cassettes. With hard drives becoming less expensive it should be easy to just buy a few hard drives and backup an entire library in a universal lossless format, allowing the user to transcode to whatever other format they choose.

I keep a FLAC copy of everything I have on a RAID and an external. When I encode the FLAC, I also encode an mp3 copy for my portables.

You could copy the CDs every 15 years or so. Disks vary in quality, and in how they're manufactured. Some are pressed, and some are burned. I don't believe that there's a pat answer to your question. I don't see any reason to go to a magnetic tape format of any kind. Even hard drive is a temporary medium. Nominal lifetime of most hard drives is 3 years. Yeah, I know that some run a lot longer than that. Some also have a much shorter life span - especially externals that are left running 24/7/365.

FLAC is a lossless format, but is compressed. PCM WAV at 44,100 samples/sec, with 16 bit encoding would be lossless and uncompressed. Take your pick. You're not likely to be able to hear a difference, but FLAC will reduce your storage needs by about half. If you put them onto hard drive, you could also burn them to DVD, which will store a LOT more music per disk, and take a lot less time to duplicate when you finally get your Blu-Ray burner, or solid state drive in a few years.

Interesting comments here. One of many opinions on CD longivity.
http://www.rense.com/general52/themythofthe100year.htm

I first noticed cd "rot" with a Melissa Manchester CD I owned

Click to expand...

You're saying that like it's a bad thing....

I've noticed home burned CDs deteriorate MUCH faster than commercially manufactured discs. Most of my CDs from the '90s still play, but the most of the ones I burned 5 years ago do not. The Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Gold Plated CDs may outlast all other CDs. I'll have to see in another 10 years.

Vinyl so far still remains the most durable known music storage format.......

Based on some of what I'm reading here, one answer for archiving for a long period is to every 5 or so years, dub a new copy of the disc. I'm involved in an archival project dubbing radio records from the 1940s to CDs and 3/4" tape and VHS tapes to DVDs. It seems now that I should try to encourage the organization I'm doing this for to keep the originals of, at least, the most important pieces. The 1940s discs that were pressed in poly-vinyl (which was not available for commercial discs) are often like new. Little or no clicks, pops or crackle.

Since the archive is digital, there will be no generational loss in copying the CD every four or five years.

Recordable CD media is especially sensitive to heat and light. Some Recordable CD's only have one layer of plastic (the face down side) scratching the top is also damaging the actual film of the read material . Some recordable CD's are sandwiched between two layers (and are much more expensive). Storing your CD's in a cool dark closet will extend the life of your recordable material considerably. Purchased CD's have a greater lifespan as the medium is much more robust and is also sealed between layers. But its still a good idea to store your disks in a dark cool place. 8)

Hi:

It is always best to keep the original media (i.e. transcription records, 3/4" tape, etc). Improvements in transcribing gear and techniques may allow a better transfer down the road.

That, and digital media can get lost or corrupted easier than an old record.

Dan

I agree with keeping the original source, if possible. However, sometimes it's not possible, like when a long-time organization is leaving its digs after say 60+ years in the same building, and they won't have room for the interesting items in the new place. The other issue is future play-back.
3/4" videotapes may appear in ok shape, but it's hard to find and maintain a machine to play them on.