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THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED.

J

joshzz

It's only a matter of time. It will end. All of it will disappear. The music on every CD, DVD, made over the last 20- 30 years will simply disappear. In fact, many have already disappeared.

You see, unlike records, CD/DVD, simply disappear in thin air. Oh sure, your blank media storage item will remain but everything recorded on it will vanish. You can archive them, stick them in a safe, put them underground but you'll get the same result.... gone!

We have several thousand CDs in our studios - they won't last a lifetime. Burned CDs have a life of 2 - 5 years.

Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland GmbH, takes this view: "If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs as they will last 25 - 100 years. Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation."



Maybe we should have just stuck with records but found a way to play them without a needle. Possibly a laser type reader that digitally interprets the grooves? :)
 
You mean a laser player like this?

http://www.elpj.com/

A commercially produced CD uses a molding process, just as for vinyl records. So, as long as it is handled with reasonable care and not scratched, or subject to too much heat, it should last indefinitely.

"Burned" CD's and data disks use a laser to burn the data into dye encased in the recordable CD. These CD's will degrade, especially if left in bright light, as the dye fades.
 
This is why we've gone back to the wire recorder.
 
I have yet to have a pressed CD from a record company disappear on me. I've encountered some burned CDs that burn-out, so to speak. In fact there is one case where the CD lasted only a few months! Recording music onto data CDs is not the thing to do for long-term use, it seems to me.
You're much better off burning to music CDs. Am I correct in this?

Now, onto other media. Good magnetic tape can last a long, long time. One of the radio station's I'm at has programs from the 1950s that have been digitized, but they kept the reels. The reel-to-reel tapes sound just fine, although the tapes need to be handled gently.
Vinyl is fine, although I've had cases where a slight click or pop will suddenly arise out of nowhere even though the LP has done nothing but sit properly in its cover and slip case on the shelf. Bigger problems arise with the little '45's, most notably those pressed in styrene instead of real vinyl. There's lots of stuff I like and want to listen to, but not enough to get me to spend over $15 for a CD of it. Thank you Vinyl. You will always have a place in my house.
 
You guys are making me worry.

I have 10 THOUSAND songs I put on cd in about 2001. I used a few almost daily (in my car). They ALL still sound great. They are mostly on Office Depot brand and Memorex brand cds. Few are "music cd's."
 
Probably dozens of different factors would affect the life of a recordable CD. Don't think there is any real magic about "music" discs compared with regular data discs. More likely a brand to brand or era to era difference (e.g. was it made in China?).
 
If you want eternal copies of recordings you need to digitize them on hard media. If properly stored they will last indefinitely and can be replicated as many times as needed, each copy a perfect duplication.
 
I listened to a Bing Crosby recording made in 1947 on a Magnecord, played through a vacuum tube MacIntosh amplifier, thorugh a set of Altec-Lansing "voice of the teheater" speakers. After all these years absolutely fantastic!! BTW, this was at the Pavek Museum of Broadcating near Minneapolis. Worth the stop if you are into radio. And of course you are, or you wouldn't be reading this board :)
 
"Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for 1963. to the ghetto in Chicago on a HOTTTT Summer day.....

"voice of the teheater" speakers" (your spelling)

I always remember visiting WYNR, 1390 in Chicago in the mid 60's. It was owned by Gordon MacLendon. Their studio was in a horrible apartment building at 2708 W. Washington, in the city. They took on wls for about a year.

In the unairconditioned studio they had a HUGE "voice of the teheater" speaker that rumbled the whole place. At times, it rumbled the tone arm off of the record.

"Where do all the Hippies meet? South Street South Street."
(by the Orlons)
dj's;
Bruce Brown, Luckyy Cordell, Floyd Brown, "Wild Child" Dick Kemp
 
The funny part is that while CD-Rs have a limited life, the CDs sold by record labels are don't. It's a different process, and their information will be preserved as long as the disc itself remains intact. For some reason, record labels aren't using this as a selling point to the download generation. Perhaps they're concerned about telling them their products are indestructable. Most companies prefer to sell products that need replacement. But professional CDs won't.

I've spoken with professional archive companies, and they tell me that converting your audio to data could help them last longer. I haven't tried that yet, so if anyone's tried, let us know.
 
Once you have converted the audio to data then it will survive mostly becuase of the myriad ways of profilerating the data and the ease with which it can be transferred. Muct faster transfernig digitally than transferring analog audio (e.g duplicating to tape). Look at the methods there are for storing digital data: CD, Flash Drive, Hard Drive, Hard Disk, DAT, etc (and I think that I have barely scratched the surfafce). And you can keep multiple copies as well.
 
When I was a kid I had one of those plastic kiddie record players that had the cartridge go out. So I got a pin from my mothers sewing box and stuck it through a styrophone cup and taped it to the tone arm. Wasn't really that loud and it wasn't that good on the records, but all I played on it was some old scratchy kids records. thousands of years from now, archeologists will dig up some old records somewhere and will look at it and notice the grooves and realize that there is sound on them. It won't take long before they realize that if they stick a needle in there that they may hear something. If they dig up a CD, DVD or flash drive they are going to be scratching their heads trying to figure out how to play it.
 
All that information about how to play digital data CDs will be included in the Person Owner's Manual in about a thousand years, flytrap. Probably some kind of Plug-n-Play fingertip-size laser scanable drive thing. :)
 
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