How long do burned CDs last?

[Roberto]

With all the comments I hear like "Downloading music from services like Itunes is the future of buying music", or something like "Music stores will disappear as more people purchase music in downloadable forms". I myself like pre-pressed CDs. I like getting the whole package, including all the artwork, info, a disc label that didn't come out of my inkjet printer, etc. I know that sounds so 20th century, but I guess I'm still a little old fashoned (I still can't stop calling them Albums either!).

My other reason for being a little skeptical of getting all my music as downloads and burning them is longevity. How long does a CD last compared with a pressed one, given that it is burned on quality media with a good burner? So far the copies I've burned on TDK discs don't have any problems, but none are more than a couple years old. I can't imagine reburning a bunch of CDs every few years to keep them "fresh".

Just wondering...

[dodecahedron]

yeah, that exactly what you'll have to do.

the only question is "how many years" ?
nobody really knows.

if you go by the media manufacturers, they assure us that the CDs will last a long time (50 years, 100 years, depending on the company). i don't really think most media will last that long.

not that you need it to anyway, the technology will be outdated long before that.

the comfort is that in say 10 years time or so you'll have copied all of your music to DVDs or BlueRay or whatnot, and it won't be such a hassle since it won't take so many CDs.

[CDRecorder]

As long as you take good care of your CD-Rs and use good-quality discs, they should last for a long time. What I generally do is burn two copies of the music that I download (legally). I do one copy on a cheaper disc for actual use, and I do another copy on a high-quality disc for archival. I also keep the files stored on my computers, so the chance of losing them is very minimal.