I have a home-made CD from 2001 that still works fine. I don't doubt what you're saying, Greg. There must be a fair amount of variation in the life-span of home-made CDs. I've stopped buying inexpensive blank CDs, and for the ones I'm producing, I'm buying the best quality I can find. I'm wondering... Discmakers seems to be a reputable producer of CDs, and you can buy blank CDs from them at a reasonable price. If they are the same blanks that they use, then either they are of good enough quality to last longer, or their own products have a short shelf life. Or are companies like Discmaker "commercial" manufacturers who use a different process, so you're alright.

Maybe it's a good idea to burn a new "master" CD every couple of years. I've done that with cassettes. I don't see saving cassettes indefinitely. I KNOW that they deteriorate seriously, from experience.

Besides most music goes completely out of fashion in 5 years, anyway .. :-)

Jerry