The demise of the music CD inevitable?

I do not believe CD longevity is as great as it is typically purported to be. The material(s) itself wears out and often renders portions of the disk inaudible as the reflective layer "evaporates" and the laser is unable to read the data. Virtually no storage and/or handling modification can prevent this.

I think that was a rumour started by a vinyl lover reviewer article was called something like "CD Rot" in Stereophile one or two years after it was released.
I still have one of the first cd’s to come to Australia and it’s 33 years old now and still perfect, no see through pinhole if held up to a strong light either, just as perfect as the day I bought it, uncompressed Dire Straits "Love Over Gold" 1982 and it sounds very good, almost "Reference Recordings 24/96" quality.

Cheers George

"...CD will go bad in 20-25 years."

This statement prompted me to check some of the very 1st CD's I bought, back in '84-'85.  I'll be honest, I've literally been reading about 'pinholes' and 'CD rot' for decades, I've never seen holes or rot, ever!  I own roughly 2000+ discs!  I held up those old CD's I mentioned before up to a light (looking for those pesky pinholes!;).  Nada, nothing, bupkus.  I'm listening to one of them as I type and it's playing as flawlessly as the day I bought it 31+ yrs ago!    

georgelofi, chazro and others, trust me, cds do rot and go bad. However, that said...

- it is a relatively small number percentage wise, and is usually isolated more so to certain brands.

- because you have not noticed it yet after so many years, consider yourselves lucky

- just because there are pinholes, this does not mean the playback device cannot still read and play the disk due to error correction

- if you want more proof positive that there is something wrong with your disks, use exact audio copy. I’m sure most will agree that software is a defacto standard for copying/burning. take a small percentage of your collection and attempt to read using secure mode (not burst mode like normal copying is done). at times errors will be reported.

- many cds have a full label on the reflective side. you cannot see or readily determine the problem. do your inspection on disks that have the metalic coating. and even then use bright light and look carefully.

- cds are essentially cost prohibitive as compared to playing digital files directly. that too diminishes their overall "appeal"

Hi,

More to my point, the current generation, most of my friends do not even own CDP's unlike myself who agrees CD sounds great. That said, about 90% of my listening is TIDAL streaming, so close to CD in SQ I have no desire to purchase CD's anymore.