How long will CD-R's & DVD-R's last?

I have many CD-R audio disc that were burned in 2000 and still sound the same as the day I made the copy. These are the Disc made in Japan. Maxell and Sony made by Taiyo Yuden.

quote from wikipedia:

Main article: CD-R
A typical 700-megabyte CD-RRecordable compact discs, CD-Rs, are injection molded with a "blank" data spiral. A photosensitive dye is then applied, and then the discs are metalized and lacquer coated. The write laser of the CD recorder changes the color of the dye to allow the read laser of a standard CD player to see the data as it would an injection molded compact disc. CD-R recordings are permanent. The resulting discs can be read by most CD-ROM drives and played in most audio CD players. Over time however the dye will fade causing read errors and data loss until the reading device cannot recover with error correction methods. [citation needed] This time can be anything from a few months to a projected life of over 100 years, depending on the quality of the discs used, the quality of the writing drive, and storage conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

It would appear from the article the burn side is light sensitive to ultraviolet light. When not in use I keep the disc in a CD jewel case with the label side up.

Just an added note, what I have found is never demagnetize a CD-R Audio disc after it has been burned. It will sound dead..... Why? I have no idea, but it does.

You can no longer be certain that media from Maxell and Sony is genuine Taiyo Yuden media (definitely an excelent manufacturer).

Very true, I discovered the same thing as you a couple of years ago. One had to look for the made in Japan on the outside wrapper, and the blue/green color burn side. The Taiwan CD-R music are junk in comparrison. One thing right off the bat is the rough jagged outer edge of the Taiwan disc. The Taiyo Yuden Outer edge is as smooth as a baby's butt.

I bought up a bunch of the Maxell made in Japan a couple of years ago. The last ones I could find was from Sams club a little over a year and a half ago.

Marco I was hoping you would address my comment on demagnetizing a CD-R audio disk after recording on it. Why would spinning it in my Bedini Clarifier degrade the sound? Any thoughts....

Is it only true right after you burn the CD, or does it hold true to any CD-R/RW at any time after it has been burned?

Marco,
no , anytime. That is for a CD-R audio disc. It is like the life has been drained from the Cd.
If you get a chance try it and post back your results.

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