ok so this page is still under construction, (in terms of appearance), but feel free to read through my incoherent ramblungs of how much I adore CDs.

An incomprehensive guide to the dangers of optical disc decay

Last Updated: 04.03.2025

Foreword

...it all started with a whang! video.

that's what I always say when someone asks me about my adoration towards compact discs. I mean, it didn't start with that video. I used to watch pirated, home-dubbed spongebob episodes on DVD-Rs back then. even then, I was fascinated with how the hell an entire movie, series, album or even an entire game could fit on a shiny slab of plastic.

obviously, life got in the way (not that that's a bad thing!), school, work, and I simply grew up. Never thought about it ever since physical media became obsolete for everyday use.

but then... this little youtuber I was a fan of made a video covering a once lost shoegaze EP from a long-forgotten band. I'm not entirely sure why this, out of all lost albums and EPs in this world, got a huge revival, but I don't mind it. it sounds nice. But what interested me the most was the initial discovery of the EP. The first rip of the songs sounded... nothing like I had heard before. Combined with the droning, ambient melodies of the EPs original songs, this so-called "disc rot" captivated me like nothing else in recent memory. it was probably because I had always assumed that digital media couldn't degrade like tapes could, but this... this made me fall into a deep, deep rabbit hole, one I have yet to crawl out of.

now, I know more about optical discs than the average person ever should.

Also, before I actually start, I just wanted to say that this essay(?) will NOT be a history of the format or any of its predecessors. I will also be mostly talking about the CDDA (red book) format, as it is the standard I'm most familiar with currently.


1. Makeup of an Optical disc

In simple terms, an optical disc is a flat polycarbonate plastic disc, one side containing a label, and the other, the shiny part, the data.

The center of the disc contains a 15mm-diameter spindle hole, which is used to place the disc into a disc tray. The ring around that center hole is a "clamping area", which usually conatins information regarding the disc's pressing plant and other such information.
Around that is the "stacking ring", also a form of a clamping ring, which serves to make the surface of the data side of the disc not make direct contact with whatever surface it was placed on to minimize damage done to the surface and prevent playback errors.
And finally, just before the data, is the mirror band, a mirror-like reflective ring around the stacking ring, which contains non-data information like the manufacturer, and other informational codes like barcodes.