More bad news for the CD.

Ben Grimm wrote:

I have had a few cds go bad over the years and they were PACKAGED by the RECORD company not some knock off cd-r. I actually sent a complaint to both of the record companies, one of them ( Solid State) I sent them the cd because I was pissed about the quality of the cd. I got a letter from both companies basically saying they can not be liable for how the user handles the cd....funny I usually take the cd out of the package put it in my computer rip it and put it back in the case...probably never taking it back out of the case. I noticed the damage to one cd because I had to re-rip the disk to my computer after an accidental delete and one I noticed the damage when I got out the cd to look at the lyrics and liner notes
.
By the way the rotted cds Def Leppard - Hysteria bought in 1988
Dead Poetic - New Medicines
Demon Hunter - Storm the Gates of hell
Oh and I store my cds in a nice safe spot not in some dank garage my cds are of importance to me

This is what the Web says about CD-ROT

HOW CD ROT HAPPENS

CD Rot occurs in some older disks that were manufactured in the technologies early days.
The aluminum layer that reflects the light of the player’s laser is separated from the CD label by a thin layer of lacquer. If the manufacturer applied the lacquer improperly, air can penetrate to oxidize the aluminum, eating it up much like iron rusts in air.



Damn, Half of my Testament Discography were ruined, 4 Metallicas, 2 Skid Rows, 2 M.O.D.s, and a whole bunch of others that Belong to the Rock genre, all in all a total of 35 or something, coincidentally most of 'em were Made in France, I'm beginning to suspect they were some cheap manufactured plastic CDRs printed professionally...Damn Frenchies

EmoElmo wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

I have had a few cds go bad over the years and they were PACKAGED by the RECORD company not some knock off cd-r. I actually sent a complaint to both of the record companies, one of them ( Solid State) I sent them the cd because I was pissed about the quality of the cd. I got a letter from both companies basically saying they can not be liable for how the user handles the cd....funny I usually take the cd out of the package put it in my computer rip it and put it back in the case...probably never taking it back out of the case. I noticed the damage to one cd because I had to re-rip the disk to my computer after an accidental delete and one I noticed the damage when I got out the cd to look at the lyrics and liner notes
.
By the way the rotted cds Def Leppard - Hysteria bought in 1988
Dead Poetic - New Medicines
Demon Hunter - Storm the Gates of hell
Oh and I store my cds in a nice safe spot not in some dank garage my cds are of importance to me

This is what the Web says about CD-ROT

HOW CD ROT HAPPENS

CD Rot occurs in some older disks that were manufactured in the technologies early days.
The aluminum layer that reflects the light of the player’s laser is separated from the CD label by a thin layer of lacquer. If the manufacturer applied the lacquer improperly, air can penetrate to oxidize the aluminum, eating it up much like iron rusts in air.



Damn, Half of my Testament Discography were ruined, 4 Metallicas, 2 Skid Rows, 2 M.O.D.s, and a whole bunch of others that Belong to the Rock genre, all in all a total of 35 or something, coincidentally most of 'em were Made in France, I'm beginning to suspect they were some cheap manufactured plastic CDRs printed professionally...Damn Frenchies

There you go; I think you're on to something. I have a bunch of Metallica and Skid Row discs that still play without a problem. Sounds like you got ripped off...

^^ Yeah, I noticed that my US-manufactured CDs are sturdier and heavier too, not one suffered from rotting, i got ripped-off allright, heck those are even more expensive than the US versions

EmoElmo wrote:

^^ Yeah, I noticed that my US-manufactured CDs are sturdier and heavier too, not one suffered from rotting, i got ripped-off allright, heck those are even more expensive than the US versions

Makes me wonder how well the various CDs I ordered from NuclearHell (a Russian website) will hold up.

tohostudios wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

^^ Yeah, I noticed that my US-manufactured CDs are sturdier and heavier too, not one suffered from rotting, i got ripped-off allright, heck those are even more expensive than the US versions

Makes me wonder how well the various CDs I ordered from NuclearHell (a Russian website) will hold up.

That's were ripping all your CDs to a computer comes in handy. I has a few CDs the were badly scratched and broken (neglect that I highly regret) and all I had to do was burn some CD-Rs. As long as you back them up on a hard drive that you keep in storage (I keep mine in a fireproof safe). Just remember to update it every now and then (I think many people here remember what happened to me when I didn't do that ).

^ Hardrives are by far the most reliable, I never trusted CDRs or DVDRs, they suck and are damn slow and expensive as well, Dollar per Gigabyte ratio, Hardrive wins ...a 1 Terabyte HD would fit-in approx. 2,100 +++ albums encoded in FLAC

I own over 3000 CD's, and have only had 1 go bad. And it was a CD manufactured in 1996, via Nuclear Blast.

All my old discs from thw '80's still play fine.

I'm getting less and less interested in newer bands, so I guess in the future I'll search for holes in my collection. And since they already exist on CD, I'll have no problem feeding my addiction

EmoElmo wrote:

^ Hardrives are by far the most reliable, I never trusted CDRs or DVDRs, they suck and are damn slow and expensive as well, Dollar per Gigabyte ratio, Hardrive wins ...a 1 Terabyte HD would fit-in approx. 2,100 +++ albums encoded in FLAC

and what happens when the hard drive dies and you can't retrieve your files?
Let me guess, you have ANOTHER hard drive backing up the same files?

DallasBlack wrote:

That's were ripping all your CDs to a computer comes in handy. I has a few CDs the were badly scratched and broken (neglect that I highly regret) and all I had to do was burn some CD-Rs. As long as you back them up on a hard drive that you keep in storage (I keep mine in a fireproof safe). Just remember to update it every now and then (I think many people here remember what happened to me when I didn't do that ).

That would be ideal, but not everybody can afford to buy an extra drive just to keep in a safe (that they also can't afford to own).

Right now I see a LOT of people, including friends selling off a lot of their vinyl, cd's, dvd's, musical gear etc;
and none are talking about buying anything... looks like if the CD market is going to "die", they picked the absolute right time to do it.

I don't agree with the argument that people can't afford it. Up until a few weeks ago you could buy a 1TB drive for under £50 (still very cheap in $) and I imagine you could pick up a safe for a similar amount of money. Considering that is the cost of maybe 10 new CDs, it's not a lot of cash at all.

kmorg wrote:

I own over 3000 CD's, and have only had 1 go bad. And it was a CD manufactured in 1996, via Nuclear Blast.

All my old discs from thw '80's still play fine.

I'm getting less and less interested in newer bands, so I guess in the future I'll search for holes in my collection. And since they already exist on CD, I'll have no problem feeding my addiction

I have only ever had one issues - Believer's extraction From Mortality, it doesn;t play anymore

I have a couple of CDs that won't play in my car stereo (oddly enough, they're both fairly recent releases...Slayer's WORLD PAINTED BLOOD and the Retroactive re-issue of Deliverance's WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE) but they play fine everywhere else. Go figure.

I have one CD Roger Waters-Flickering Flame disc, a comp disc that won't play on the PC, but it says it won't play on your PC right on the cover, this was that brief time when labels where trying to kill the whole idea of downloading by making these types of disc.

My copy of morbid angels heretic won't play on my laptop and it's the only cd I own which I can't put on iTunes yet it has no labels on the inlay card or anywhere on the case to say its not compatible with a pc.

Ironically I have ozzy's live at budokan cd which has a big print on the front saying "not compatible with pc" yet it plays on my lap top fine and it's ripped to iTunes and on my iPod

snooloui wrote:

I don't agree with the argument that people can't afford it. Up until a few weeks ago you could buy a 1TB drive for under £50 (still very cheap in $) and I imagine you could pick up a safe for a similar amount of money. Considering that is the cost of maybe 10 new CDs, it's not a lot of cash at all.

the economy keeps building a larger gap between those that are finding it difficult to get by every month, and those that are doing quite well and do not notice anything has changed.

I used to be in the middle ground, always had extra money, but no longer, not for 6 months, it will continually to get worse, and now will have to even change my internet to the smallest cap , which is just above dial-up.

My income is the same, but the cost of living keeps flying higher and higher.

mlotek wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

^ Hardrives are by far the most reliable, I never trusted CDRs or DVDRs, they suck and are damn slow and expensive as well, Dollar per Gigabyte ratio, Hardrive wins ...a 1 Terabyte HD would fit-in approx. 2,100 +++ albums encoded in FLAC

and what happens when the hard drive dies and you can't retrieve your files?
Let me guess, you have ANOTHER hard drive backing up the same files?

Back-up comes in Two's, right? Yeah, TWO Hardrives is all you ever need, 'seamlessly' backing-up each other
Otherwise it wouldn't be called a back-up.. If you treasure your files of course you wouldn't mind spending more than 50 dollars for it

EmoElmo wrote:

mlotek wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

^ Hardrives are by far the most reliable, I never trusted CDRs or DVDRs, they suck and are damn slow and expensive as well, Dollar per Gigabyte ratio, Hardrive wins ...a 1 Terabyte HD would fit-in approx. 2,100 +++ albums encoded in FLAC

and what happens when the hard drive dies and you can't retrieve your files?
Let me guess, you have ANOTHER hard drive backing up the same files?

Back-up comes in Two's, right? Yeah, TWO Hardrives is all you ever need, 'seamlessly' backing-up each other
Otherwise it wouldn't be called a back-up.. If you treasure your files of course you wouldn't mind spending more than 50 dollars for it

The jury is still out as to whether or not an external drive holds data without degradation ? Have you actually had a drive sitting in a box or on a shelve unplugged and not in use for an extended period of time ?

Who has

^ it's all about luck, sometimes a reliable brand can be not so reliable at all and an unreliable brand might surprise you, I've had a Hitachi 300 GB HD wrapped in a plastic foodwrap that's been in my drawer for about a couple of years, the time I decided to re-format it it's still alive and kicking. For as long as you protect it from insects, liquids, excessive shock, heat and dust, it will likely survive.

The best thing to do is always keep two HD's, when one dies, replace it right away.

EmoElmo wrote:

^ it's all about luck, sometimes a reliable brand can be not so reliable at all and an unreliable brand might surprise you, I've had a Hitachi 300 GB HD wrapped in a plastic foodwrap that's been in my drawer for about a couple of years, the time I decided to re-format it it's still alive and kicking. For as long as you protect it from insects, liquids, excessive shock, heat and dust, it will likely survive.

The best thing to do is always keep two HD's, when one dies, replace it right away.

Guess that answers my question....I have music on drives but it's not "store bought" stuff. Just live music in audio and video format.

I backup my on my external and an off site external just in case.

I don't think there's much danger of a hard drive losing data when not in use. I guess most failures are down to the breakdown of moving parts. Though I guess most people continue to buy CDs hence they will constantly adding to their library. I don't have a back up of my library (in fact i've just started ripping to 320k/bit which is an absolute pain even though I only have 200-220 CDs) and my HDD hasn't failed. Maybe i'm just lucky. I will probably try to pick up a new drive when the prices come down again though.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I have a couple of CDs that won't play in my car stereo (oddly enough, they're both fairly recent releases...Slayer's WORLD PAINTED BLOOD and the Retroactive re-issue of Deliverance's WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE) but they play fine everywhere else. Go figure.

I had this problem too. Got a new car and guess what, now they play. I guess some CD players are just uber picky.

Well, the thing is, CDs are not going to die like medium. What's going to die is the major physical distribution. It has started to die already with many hole-in-the-wall stores and even entire chains like FYE closing up.

What the major labels are going to dump is the old model of pressing hundreds of thousands cds and then supplying every store with them. This is definitely going to go. But with the online market, there is no reason for labels to stop pressing limited releases and sell through their own online or dedicated websites like indiemerchstore.com.

If you look at labels like Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Metal Blade, on their own webstores you will notice they always have their new albums coming out as special packages with some extras, t-shirts bundles, etc. And with vinyl making a comeback stronger than ever since the 80s, CDs are not going to go away either. I'm certain of it. You may not be able to buy cds at your local music store or mall, but most certainly will be able to order them online.

BUT...with less and less output on cd you'll see a decline in the companies that manufacture and press cds because it will no longer be profitable, thus those companies will either move on to something else, or shut their doors. Which will in turn make getting cds harder to come by and possibly more expensive in the long run.

I read that a reason that CDs don't play in some players e.g. car stereos, laptops etc are because they tend to have badly calibrated lasers (specifically the slot loading ones). I don't know if there's any truth in this but it would make sense.