How Are Your Compact Discs Bearing Up After All These Years? BBC Online Report.

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Compact discs were sold as the durable alternative to vinyl - but anyone who opens the case of an ageing CD may be in for a nasty surprise...

― Andrew Marshall, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Similar story on this thread : Oh fuck...

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I have several that are unplayable a few months after buying them," she said. "To say they will last for 100 years simply isn't true."

...chicks.

― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

That was a waste, ILE's better for that stuff really

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Many hundreds of CD's, and I've never had a problem with any of them, even the ones that date from the mid 1980's. On top of that, I'm not even extremely vigilant about putting the damn things back in their cases. Maybe I have a CD Guardian Angel...

― Davlo (Davlo), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Some of my Melvins cds stopped working. I blame Canada.

― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

am i then, the only one *horrified* to hear about the 'other side/labelled side' thing?!! heckfire!

how long before they reveal that MP3s 'rot' somehow? what's the longest we've had our mp3s? my oldest isn't even 4 years tops yet.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't have any problems with my cd's, though my cd player itself sucks major donkey balls.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't recall any problems either -- this even includes a slew of CDs from PDO with the notorious rot problem from the early nineties.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 13:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I have one 'bronzed' CD - the first Island issue of Pink Moon from 1990 or so. This was PDO, as far as I remember. My 11-y-o portable doesn't like playing it but it's fine on anything a bire more substantial.

These CD rot stories roll around every once in a while. I don't see any evidence that correctly manufactured CDs decay in this way.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Same here: only Maggot Brain, (bought in '90, year I bought a player) has bronzed in colour, and it still plays fine. I'm certain that some CDs I bought used were manufactured in the '80s, and they're fine. For now...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"I bought a Killing Joke CD, took it home, and eagerly got ready to listen to it. The CD was difficult to get out of its case though, as the holder in the centre was extremely tight. Eventually the CD sprung loose but out of my grasp, and bounced off my CD player leaving it scratched and completely unusable due to "jumping" tracks. And I thought 15 quid was paying for a durable alternative to vinyl...
Chris, West Yorkshire"

― Rock Bastard, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I Was Told That Vinyl Offered Superior Sound But After An Afternoon Under The Window In My Car My Records Sound Like Shit

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Albert ayler's 'lorrach/paris 1966' has stopped working for me. I'm not sure why bcz all other CDs I've gotten from the hatology label are fine :-(

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought a Killing Joke CD...

It strikes me that Alex might not this fan is honoring fire correctly.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Might not THINK this etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got CDs I bought nearly twenty years ago and they all play fine, (I don't think I've even seen a case of a "bronzed" CD) though most of them *sound* lame, this being the days before people realized how to do a sympathetic remastering job for digital.

The first CD I bought was -- hooray! -- a now rare copy of Abbey Road pressed briefly in Japan in 1984.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I've got CDs dating back as far as 1987, and none of them ever have a problem, in any player that I've listened to them with.

― phil d., Wednesday, 4 August 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Still have my first CD from '85 (Born to Run) and it works fine. Hell I have casettes from 83 or 84 that still work.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

well this is old news, dating back a few years from when this first started happening. I don't have any that have become unplayable yet due to anything other than my own negligence, BUT, a lot of my first-issue imports have become "sticky" on the top (usually ones that say Mastered by NIMBUS on them; 4AD and Beggars' discs in particular) and will probably disintegrate eventually.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I got a Fields of the Nephilim BBC Live, rotted all to hell but that's the only one.

― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Even though I'm a huge Fields fan, I think that was a case of the disc saving you from yourself.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

My Synchronicity tape from 1983 STILL plays, to this day. And I listen to it at least twice a year.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

CRO2! does it have those bleeps at the head?

― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the bleeps that say you've just bought a quality product; and are therefore special. Ahhhh, sweet bleeps!

― Evanston Wade (EWW), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Like a dork, I even convinced the band that I'm in to stick those beeps onto an unlisted final track on our self-released E.P.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

orbital - brown - slowly corroding from the inside out
test dept and brith gof - gododdin - slowly going a bit iffy round the edges.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

orbital - brown - slowly corroding from the inside out
No, you've misunderstood -- it's just remixing itself biologically. This is natural.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

> I have one 'bronzed' CD

my copy of Gigantic 2 ('91?) refuses to play its last track. Luckily this is by Birdland. i have an altered images collection that appears to be going the same way too, but plays fine.

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 5 August 2004 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I recently discvovered that I like my old CDs better than my newer ones. But then I would. Some of them are a bit 'bronzed', like their owner.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 5 August 2004 10:26 (twenty-one years ago)

am i then, the only one *horrified* to hear about the 'other side/labelled side' thing?!! heckfire!

The amount of times I've had to explain this to people...

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 5 August 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i have a CD player from 1986 that still sounds fine

but yes, have to agree with Phil, that while the CDs last, the production/ mastering has meant some older ones sound truly laughable when set beside the latest re-masters

(not that i ever beleived it, but in shops in the mid '80s it seemed records salespeople could not get their heads around the fact that CDs were not the ultimate in sound, which was always a good angle to haggle them on, get me out of their shop -- ie they could not believe or accept that there would be marginal improvements in CD quality in the years to come)

yeah, the real anomoly is that CDs have progressed in tech. whilst the world was sucked into ditching their vinyl for the new ultimate in sound, so although i'm not afflicted by this curse, many people i know would be on their second round of CDs of the same thing, possibly of vinyl they once owned, remastered/ cleaned-up etc. as Phil explained.
These people were often assuming CDs represented some "upgrade" from vinyl rather than just an alternative, as they certainly were then back then.

(thank god for the audiophile crank who reassured me in 1987 that it would take them ten years to get CDs "right", so i waited, bought vinyl when i could cf: CDs, expensive little bastards as they were made out to be back then by the record industry (esp. the CD issue/ re-release industry which has to be one of the biggest cash cow rip-offs in the ever-dodgy music industy yet) my purchasing of which was reserved for one-off/ collectible opportunities)

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 5 August 2004 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

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