Just spent the day MP3ing a lot of my older CDs and was horrified to discover that around 30% of them are showing signs of the dreaded CD Rot! This ranges from a slight gold tinge, to full blown oh-my-god-its-like-the-map-from the-start-of-“Bonanza”. The worse of these has already lost the last two tracks and you can almost hear the CD player working overtime on its error correction.
We’re talking about CDs that average around 17 years old . CDs that have been pampered their entire lives.
So it’s true. Those CDs that were suppose to last you a lifetime are heading for the great Eject Button In The Sky before you even reach middle age.
You got me worried so I checked out my oldest CDs: The Police’s Synchronicity; Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual; Hall & Oates’ Rock and Soul Part 1. All were purchased in the summer of 1986 and all were manufactured in Japan (at that time, IIRC, most were made in Japan or West Germany). None exhibit any symptoms of laser-rot.
Of course, I am extremely anal when it comes to my CDs (or DVDs or LPs, etc) and always put them back in their cases when done. I never leave them out exposed to the elements. I have friends who have stacks and stacks of loose CDs all over the place. They are usually sratched to hell and back. I cringe everytime I see them (the CDs, not the friends).
The Police’s Synchronicity : OK, but I only bought that one about 8 years ago.
Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual: One of the ok ones.
Hall & Oates’ Rock and Soul Part 1: This one has a whole other problem. Apparently some of the very first CDs weren’t fully compliant with the standards. So my PC’ s CD player refuses to play or copy this one at all. Like copy protection before it was even thought of. Looks ok though.
The problem, from what I’ve read on the web, relates in part to the inlays. The inlays gradually release chemicals used in their paper preparation, particularly in bleaching. The CD is of course right next to the inlay, and over time these chemicals can cause the plastic covering to perish and no longer be air tight.
Me too. And of course they are fully catalogued and strictly arranged alphabetically and chronologically. An ex of mine used to deliberately mix them up, as it would “loosen me up”. Had completely the opposite effect. People don’t realoze that once you pass a certain threshold you have to organise things this way, otherwise you’d never find anything!
People don’t realoze that once you pass a certain threshold you have to organise things this way, otherwise you’d never find anything!