The awful truth about CDs, do they have the same shelve life as LP's ?
I had to throw out quite a few Pearl and Nuova Era cds back in the day. With Pearl it wasn't so bad as the joke was Phillips No Noise process sold the noise to Pearl. They seemed to make a concerted effort to find the noisiest most worn 78s to transfer. But yes the overwhelming majority of cds from that era are just fine. |
I had a number of CDs effected by this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_bronzing Most had been replaced for free, unfortunately if the label is no longer in business out of luck. I had about 5 discs that had this issue that I was unable to get replaced. |
There is such a thing as CD rot but it's not a widespread problem. A friend bought a bunch of CDs from the Koch label(I believe) that went bad. The company ended up replacing his for free as well as thousands of others. DVDs are actually worse because of the poorer dye that is used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_bronzing |
CDs in my collection, that I've had since the 80s, still play and sound very well, but they have always been stored and handled with great care. I have had several CDRs go bad over the years, even though getting the same care and handling. I have LPs from the 60s, 70s and 80s that still sound great. I too believe the industry is pushing to move us away from CDs and into streaming and downloads. I'm afraid that, like analogue LPs, CDs will become harder to find and and more expensive to buy. Being a hands on person and not having much interest in the download craze, I'm hoping that CDs, as well as the analogue comeback, will hang on for some time yet. Jim |
