"Compact Disc Rot" found on older cds (early 90's...)
 

This was known very early on.

I remember reading about it in the early 1990s. You can hold up old CDs to the light and see small holes which begin to appear as the surface of the CD disintegrates. I had unplayable CDs by the mid-90s that I'd bought only a couple of years earlier.

i didn't know people cared about original pressings with CDs

I would avoid original pressings of older CDs if anything. The sound quality was generally abysmal anyway.

this happened to me on a Muddy Waters CD.

if i actually had any CDs i would go check them.

I only care not because they could be or are necessarily "collectable" but more so that they can potentially be unplayable. I bought the Moore/Suater/Deitrich cd at least 10 years ago used in a used record shop and when i bought it their was no bronzing. i've only noticed the bronzing taking effect in the last 9 or so months.
The Current 93 disc i also purchased used but much more recently and it already had the bronzed look and was played with that "staticy glitchy thing" going on a couple of tracks... unfortunately when it comes to buying used cds that could have been pressed in this time frame, you don't know until you play or look at the disc that you could have one that is "ROTTED".

ahahahaha collectable. yeah right. the most disposable format on the face of the earth.

I've been acquiring cd's since 1987 and have some that came out in '83 (pretty much the first year of availabilty) and have NONE to ROT. I take extreme care of them...no heat above room temperature, no direct sunlight and I handle them very carefully. I only carry enough with me in my car that I can take them IN wherever I go so they don't stay out in the cooking car. I just hope the older ones I have don't start in on that ROT and someday I'll put them all on external HD's as flacs or NO compression, certainly NOT mp3's. Those cd binder/albums are shit too, they will stick to the cd's..the label side, where the info in JUST under the printing and fuck them up that way. I've seen that happen. I shoulda just stuck with vinyl over 20 years ago when I made my transition, but oh well.

Not disputing that but there are a few cds that go for more $$$ than alot of rare vinyl. but this is the weird phenomen that exists with the world of eBay and those who relate to it.

And i didn't start this thread to necessarily engage in a feud about the fundamentals of vinyl vs compact disc vs electronic files... as both vinyl and the cd format has had its pressing flaws. my point is about the early 90's era of defective cd pressings.

Only cds pressed in the early 90's from the English Pressing Plant "PDO" have this problem, if you look at the inner ring of the cd if it notates "PDO" the potential is there for disc rot.

older CD's and early CD-r's are also experienceing this problem

it is an oxidation of th inner metal that holds the encoded data

eventually ALL CD's will degrade as such, just by virtue of plastic darkening and stiffening and shrinking through time.

this is a little different than what i'm talking about when i hold these "bronzed" cds in light there isn't really any holes to see-through. but yeah i remember reading about this too.

i had an older sonic youth bootleg pressed on a cd-r and it played normal for a year and then started to have a staticy skip starting on the later tracks and working towards the early ones. there weren't any scratches and the disc wasn't exposed to excessive heat or moisture, i assumed it was burned to a defective cd-r that had oxidized.

"Thanks" to PDO, there's hardly a decent copy of Skullflower's "Xaman" left on CD. Thank the Lord I bought a vinyl copy all those years ago.

New Order. Power , Corruption ( sic ) , lies .
and Movement as well.

I thought it affect only the top side , with no music.
But , yeah , it seems to grow on both sides.

yeah, CD-Rs are shit, stuff i bought only a few years ago just doesn't play at all

none of the disks I have from the early 90's have any notable flaws. few of them have been treated like shit, which can be heard as minor skipping.

I once read that cds have a theoretical lifespan of few hundred years, but I wouldn't count on it. we'll see in a couple of decades, if the worst case scenario is true.

I've been thinking about opting for vinyl always when it is possible from now on.

I've got maybe two fucked LPs, and I buy some right tatty second-hand guff. You clean them, they'll turn out alright.

I don't take the best of care of my CDs, and I've got a few that are unplayable. Such an infuriating format. Luckily, there's very little I have on CD that's irreplacable that I would replace if it remained entirely fucked.

This CD rot affected a load of Durtro artists, no? I seem to remember reading about Whitehouse or possibly Coil bemoaning such pressings.

had that happen to me with cd-rs, i bought volume 5 direct from bardo pond at their website and it arrived unplayable.

i know i'll have to tranfer tons of cd-r material (bootlegs) to dvd-r data or other cd-rs at some point soon.

i haven't had this problem with any disc and i have some that i bought in the late mid to late 80s

They're only disposable if you dispose of them, which clearly you have.

Yeah, actually cds are becoming more of a collectible commodity. The original cd of the download in the center of my signature goes for over $120, and the one on the bottom goes for about $45.

yes the nirvana hoarmoaning australian tour ep has been selling over the last few years for over 70 euros, i'm not selling mine though, at least not at this stage. some copies in australia have been sold for over $3000 to collector nuts that are willing to pay big money.

Nothing lasts. Everything is impermanent. Deal with it.

Wow. It's a great CD but that much!? I have a Japanese CD issue from 92 that stores were selling for about 15 bucks. I wonder if it's worth anything?

I bought a blue vinyl copy a little while ago, but I think it's just a recent reissue, not one of the originals from back then.

Straying from the OP a bit, but... While it's true that vinyl generally is more collectible, there are still some great collectible CDs out there. Not a lot, but some. Like that Hormoaning CD, obviously. Also some things that are only available on CD are defiinitely worth checking out, if one is after that music. For example, some of the John Peel sessions, like one I own of Th' Faith Healers.

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/bronzed.asp. Hope this help!

I also exprienced this with some CD-R's i've buned for my car. And i've balmed the temperature and humidity variations...

Yeah keep em all in a big case and you should be fine. Some people just leave 'em lying around, which is totally dumb if you plan on actually keeping them...

I have had this problem a few times but not that many but it goes to show how superior vinyl is in the age span department, not to mention sound quality etc. Pity you cant take them out with you.

Multiple hard drives?

That's probably "theoretical" as in "when you never play them".

Vinyl fades. Hard Drives corrupt. Audiophiles be warned.

Audiophiles are generally known to have a lifespan of just 80 years or so as well.

No worries.

i'm not made of money!!! leave me alone!!!

...actually, that's not a bad idea.

Last night I was helping my wife load songs on her new mp3 player, and the last track one of her Duran Duran cds wouldn't work properly.

ive at least 10 cds that have dickrot... disc rot i mean... my trumans water spasm smash is virtually unplayable... it has been replaced.

I've got cdr's I burned starting in 2000 that still play fine and show no errors when I extract the files. I even used to write on the tops where the data is JUST underneath and can see the ink 'bleed' and spread out and those discs still play fine. I just haven't had a problem yet that I keep hearing about.

What, do people burn at too high of a speed ? Use lousy hardware, the cheapest cdr's ? I use Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui, but even some of the old memorex and sony's are still undamaged.

I think people just aren't anal enough about their music storage. Then again, isn't that how you get dickrot ? LOL

Actually, probably the best way is to transfer everything to magnetic tape and never play it. The tape will keep forever as long as it's never played and stored properly.