I tend to think of my cd's as master copies too. But I have learned that they
are not forever.

My Pipes of Peace cd that I bought on its initial release on cd has failed. I
think I paid over $20 for this Columbia release at Musicland back in the day.

There is a visible hole in the metal. The plastic coating is still intact but
there is clearly a hole.....and the cd fails right at Paul's falsetto in So
Bad!


I store my cd's in boxes in their jewel cases in my closet. No light. No
dust. No varying temperatures.

I only discovered the whole after my son got hooked on Pipes of Peace on the
Wingspan cd. I just wanted to play him the original and found my nasty
surprise.


I don't know the real lifespan of recordables. I know the data cd's I create
at work have become discolored after a couple of years--stored out of
sunlight in file cabinets in teperature controlled server rooms.

I've seen "audio" grade blanks at a local office supply store. Thinking about
trying those.


Gene

np: hari georgison's splinter scored off the net