More reports-How many corrupted CD-R's with time?

Chazzbo dude you must be obsessed with CD-R's! Good luck with them and let me know how it turns out!

I have been burning cdrs for 6 years now. All of my audio cdrs have been burned at 8x and data cdrs were usually burned at whatever their maximum write speed was.

Several hundred audio cdrs were burned on generic junk discs (like CMC Magnetics). These junk discs were only used when I knew I had an archived copy on a better disc or if it wasn't a really beloved recording/performance. 1500 - 2000 other audio cdrs were burned on either Taiyo Yuden or Mitsui discs, both of which are my favorites. The 1000 - 1500 data cdrs that I have burned were primarily Taiyo Yuden and Mitsuis also.

My audio cdrs are regularly abused by extreme heat and cold and very high humidity in the car (between below freezing and up to 120 degrees F). I am happy to say that I have not had any failures of either audio or data cdrs yet.

I think the things you really need to worry about is how you physically treat your discs. Don't use sleeves of any kind. Use jewel cases. You don't want ANYTHING to touch either side of the disc repeatedly. Never put adhesive labels on your discs and don't write on them. Write only on the center hub. This is what I have done and it has worked for me.

I would like to pass my music collection on to younger family members when I can no longer enjoy it for whatever reasons. Unfortunately 6 years is not a lot of time. Who knows what shape they will be in in 60 years or so.

That's why most mid to large companies back up their data to tape. As it turns out, CD-R is not a very reliable or long lasting data archival medium, whether that data be music or source code. SO maybe those DAT machines weren't such a bad idea after all...

I've had about 200 CDs from the 80s corrode, some very seriously. They were all pressed by PDO (Philips Dupont Optical) in Blackburn, Lancashire UK. ALL were classical titles and most, fortunately were replaced free of charge by PDO. The major labels with the problem were Hyperion, ASV, Unicorn and DG Archiv. A corrosive chemical was introduced into the manufacturing process that attacked the aluminum layer in the CDs.

Ketchup: What makes you say that labels on CD-R's will compromise lifespan? Or soft sleeves? What could merely touching the polycarbonate do to deteriorate the burned layer inside? BTW, as I recall Mitsui promises >100yrs. for their Gold disks.