this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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I'm old enough to remember people lying that compact discs were practically indestructible.
I think the early rounds of those trying to get people to switch to the format were motivated by the fact that tapes were easily recordable by everyone.
Prime motivation was getting the clients to buy their whole collection a second time.
I have Audio-CDs from the 80s that are still playing 40 years later. And I have CDs with deep scratches that also play without problems.
And I have PDO pressings of Faith No More albums that are almost 40 years old and have just started to rot. Common occurrence with PDO pressings apparently; one manufacturing error is all it takes.
Disk rot usually happens when air gets in contact with the reflective coating and oxidises it. With CD's, it's actually the top side you need to be worried about, as it's right there under a thin lacquer coating. Any ding to that can expose the layer or just literally chip off a chunk of data.
At least on DVD's it's sandwiched inside the disk, so usually the only reason is a manufacturing error, and not really something the user can cause.
Tapes tear and require mechanical parts. But it wouldn't happen were there not commercial interest.
Tapes are overall simply worse. The fact that the more you use them lends to them becoming worse quality overtime is a big reason they suck.
you could run while listening to tapes - CDs kind of but not really
The CD wasn't really suited to be played Mobile (though I did have a portable CD player). It should rather be compared to vinyl in that regard.
I think tapes are great because no portable audio player ever came close to the Walkman regarding its cultural impact. The fact that anyone could record tapes opened up a lot of creative options.
For properly mastered music to be enjoyed at home on a potentially expensive setup, the CD was very close to perfect.
If we are talking portables, then just get a simple mp3 player and rip the CDs.