How to properly store CDs?

Do CDs naturally degrade with age? For some reason, I'm under the impression they do, or at least it seems logical that they would. I'd like to store music CDs inside their original cases somewhere where the degradation would be minimized as much as possible. What are the ideal conditions?

 

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I guess they do.

Direct light

Magnets (speakers)

that kinda stuff will wreck em.

 

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magnets have no effect on cd roms.

store cd's in their original cases away from direct sunlight and excessive humidity.
handle them by their edges or by their center hole.

a cdr (recordable) is estimated to have a lifespan in excess of 10 years if stored properly.

edit:
some background:
http://www.rense.com/general52/themythofthe100year.htm

 

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If you're really concerned about keeping your CDs in tact, then make copies of them. Each and every one of them. And then keep the originals along with their jewel cases and booklets in a fireproof safe in a subterranean basement. If it's not too much trouble, try building a replica of the Bat cave. That would work nicely.

Then use the burnt copies for playing in your CD player. Oh yeah, also before you burn the copied CDs, first rip them to a computer and put them on a file server somewhere in the house--or preferably your Bat cave. Just make sure it's in a place where it won't get wet or have guano dropped on it. You can get two Seagate 750 GB hard drives and get them mirrored, so if one drive fails, the other will still work and none of your music files will be lost. 750 GB really should be enough space for all the music you could ever hope to have, especially if you compress your music. And each drive costs something like $300. Not too bad.
http://cgi.ebay.com/new-SEAGATE-750...ryZ64459QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

But really, nobody actually uses CDs anymore. So there's no real reason to need to have your orginal CDs in a place where they are easily accessible. It only matters that the 1s and 0s of your music are accessible.

 

Regular CDs take a long time for this to happen. Blank CD-R discs that you buy are different than properly machined commercial CDs. The blank CD-Rs have a layer of dye which gets marked by the write laser, while regular CDs have a thin layer of metal that actually gets its pattern etched into it. Naturally these are a lot more durable.

With CD-Rs, the dye will eventually deteriorate, and develop microscopic pinholes that will render them unreadable. Depending on the quality of the disc, this can be in one year, or it can be in 5-10 years. Usually the cheaper the cd, the shorter the lifespan.

So you probably should back up your homemade discs every year or so. If you don't have a case for each disc, and you want to stack them, make sure the discs don't rub together too much, because I've had the labels (which includes the disc surface) peel off from repeated friction. Not only was that cd ruined, but the little flecks of coating make a mess! They get all over the place.

Regular music CDs that you buy from are much more durable than CD-Rs. They should last a long time. I have CDs that are over 15 years old, and you would think they were bought yesterday.

Basically just keep your discs in a neutral environment - no direct sunlight, no high temperatures, etc.

 

burn a cd unto a hardrive and get rid of the cd. Use emulator like alcohol 120% to emulate the cd as iso file or to create iso file from the cd. And every year or so buy a 200gb harddrive. It works!

 

Indeed...hard drive backups beat all. Just once you have the hard drive mirrored

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Except you can't just take your hard drive to a friends house any time you want.

 

sure you can.
http://www.pexagontech.com/deals/10...rive--99.php?gclid=CImfn8Ll1ooCFQgTWAodHVy2fg