CD-R longevity

[Leon74]

I have recently bought many second-hand cd's. I have converted them to flacs. I have these flac files stored with Onedrive, on 3 harddisks and probably I will also archive them on blu ray.
But I am still considering whether to also make CD backups. It costs a bit of money, work and storage with hundreds of Cd's to copy but my main questions are:

Will I still use a CD player after, say 10 years?

And more important:

What is the quality of the recordable CD's you get nowadays? How long will they last?

 

[Al ears]

I have recently bought many second-hand cd's. I have converted them to flacs. I have these flac files stored with Onedrive, on 3 harddisks and probably I will also archive them on blu ray.
But I am still considering whether to also make CD backups. It costs a bit of money, work and storage with hundreds of Cd's to copy but my main questions are:

Will I still use a CD player after, say 10 years?

And more important:

What is the quality of the recordable CD's you get nowadays? How long will they last?

If you already have these stored digitally on more than one device I see little point in backing them up to CD-R.

 

[Steve983]

Holy belt and braces Batman!

I've only had 1 cd go bad in 35 years of cd collecting, one back up should be enough I would have thought.

 

[Leon74]

If you already have these stored digitally on more than one device I see little point in backing them up to CD-R.

Of course I would agree with that. That's also why I didn't make CD-R copies. However, if CD-R's wouldn't be made anymore, that would mean I wouldn't be able to play my music with CD players anymore.
I also noticed the number of brands for CD-R's already got very reduced. So the question is more like: Shall I make CD-R copies just for that reason or leave CD's altogether and start listening to the FLAC files in case CD-R's would completely disappear?
I don't think they will quickly, suddenly disappear, but how long until all CD-R's sold are crap?

 

[Al ears]

Of course I would agree with that. That's also why I didn't make CD-R copies. However, if CD-R's wouldn't be made anymore, that would mean I wouldn't be able to play my music with CD players anymore.
I also noticed the number of brands for CD-R's already got very reduced. So the question is more like: Shall I make CD-R copies just for that reason or leave CD's altogether and start listening to the FLAC files in case CD-R's would completely disappear?
I don't think they will quickly, suddenly disappear, but how long until all CD-R's sold are crap?

I m not too sure how long they will last. Do you need CDs for a car or is it simply on a player you have in the house?
Plenty of bluray players will take a USB memory stick so personally I would forget the CD-R hassle.

 

[Messiah]

Just to confirm, you have multiple back-ups of the CDs but crucially, you still have the original CD’s, right?

When do you envisage needing to use the back-ups?

 

[Leon74]

I m not too sure how long they will last. Do you need CDs for a car or is it simply on a player you have in the house?
Plenty of bluray players will take a USB memory stick so personally I would forget the CD-R hassle.

It's for playing at home. I guess you are right. And most of those CD's, with me being 49 might well survive me. It's just I grew up with CD's and playing music from a USB stick feels....weird. I know... it's all in my head

 

[Leon74]

Just to confirm, you have multiple back-ups of the CDs but crucially, you still have the original CD’s, right?

When do you envisage needing to use the back-ups?

I have the original CD's and multiple backups in the form of FLAC files.
I would need a backup CD if one of the CD's would become faulty and I would like to continue listening to the music with a CD player. Of course I can always listen with a USB stick, from a harddisk (streaming)....

 

[Messiah]

I would need a backup CD if one of the CD's would become faulty and I would like to continue listening to the music with a CD player.

This is what I thought you would say. 😁

Surely just easier to buy a replacement CD for the odd one that may fail? (The good thing about the move to Streaming is CD's are so cheap now - unless you have some that are hard to acquire/expensive?)

Or, rather than burn a copy of everything, just keep some CD-Rs and a burner in case you ever do need a replacement.

 

[Leon74]

This is what I thought you would say. 😁

Surely just easier to buy a replacement CD for the odd one that may fail? (The good thing about the move to Streaming is CD's are so cheap now - unless you have some that are hard to acquire/expensive?)

Or, rather than burn a copy of everything, just keep some CD-Rs and a burner in case you ever do need a replacement.

Yes, thanks, that is very good advice.

It's a very good thing indeed that most people have moved to streaming (only). I have Deezer that prides itself having "HiFi" quality (= CD- quality) but when I listen to the real thing it makes a big difference.
If I had to pay the prices that CD's cost in say the nineties, I would never have that many CD's as I have now.
Yet silly enough I feel we were happier when we had less...