Your CD Collection is At Risk

A DJs nightmare usually wakes us up in a cold sweat.  In fact, I have a recurring night terror of being booked in two places at once. I even get a little edgy on a Saturday night when I am not out spinning. “Did I forget my gig?” “Shit the phone is ringing!”

My worst nightmare however is having a packed dance floor and the record skips. I have been spinning since the early 90’s so I know the value of a good plan B.

If I’m playing the second floor things may get tough to keep the needle on the wax. I usually have to resort to mp3s and CDs.  This was the case Saturday night. As I am wrapping up the night, I pull out one of those trusty 15 minutes to go songs; “The Way You Look Tonight” by Clapton.  I don’t play this often and when I do I like to play it on 45.  The floor was packed and I did not want to take the chance of a jumpy record so I dug out my CD copy…

Four minutes in and the song stops, starts again, plays for another minute then stops, then skips.  I quickly switch back over to vinyl and then I take a look at the CD.  Was the CD scratched? No. Cracked? No. It was much worse.

My CD was literally disappearing. Eroding away day by day, week by week, year by year until nothing will be left.  The conspiracy theory community says that EPA made Sony and Phillips, (the inventors of the mass market CD) add a biodegradable film to the CD to help them break down in a landfill.  I didn’t really buy into it until I saw it for myself. The EPA took away our asbestos, our brick making factories, our leaded gasoline, our aerosols.  Our music looked like it was going to be next.  My generation sold out the LP for convenience only to be left with nothing a few years later.

Thank God for the next generation, you are the ones who want vinyl. A format that will outlive us all.  Always there, always a link to our past, The DNA of generations.  The CD will disintegrate back into the earth by design.  But only vinyl will live.