Information About "CD Rot"

In December 1995 I posted a message to the Springsteen list concerning CD rot on my copy of Great Dane's PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE and asked for others that have had CD rot problems, particularly with Great Dane's CDs, to write to me. What I got was an outpouring of e-mails from folks who have had similar problems with a few of Great Dane's Bruce Springsteen titles, and as many folks who have not but were concerned that their prized possessions may someday suffer a similar fate. I asked most a series of questions concerning the CDs that they owned (mostly on Bruce titles and some non-Bruce titles put out by Great Dane for those who mentioned having some) in an effort to determine how to tell if a CD may or may not be prone to rot.

For those who don't know how to spot if their CD is "rotting," here's a quick list of symptoms:

  1. The silver color on the "label" side of the CD has started to change to a color variously described as bronze, copper, golden-brown or rusty-orange color. On the "black label" CDs, such as YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME, all that can be checked is the 2mm area of aluminum just beyond the black area on the outer portion of the disc. The discoloration doesn't necessarily show up on the "playing" side of the CDs. This symptom happens on 100% of "rotting" discs, the worse the "rot" - the more pronounced the discoloration will be.

  2. The ink used from the label side appears to be "bleeding" through to the playing side. This symptom only happens sporadically.

  3. On playing the disc, there seems to be an inordinate amount of "static-like" background noise. The level of noise that can be heard rises and falls with the volume (i.e.. soft passages vs. loud passages) of the music on the disc (not your volume knob). The louder the actual music, the more apparent the background noise will be. This symptom is not apparent at the outset, but eventually creeps in and gets worse and worse over time. This also seems to show up earliest on tracks towards the end of a disc rather than at the beginning.

  4. Your CD player exhibits tracking problems while playing the discs. This symptom is not apparent at the outset - or it could be due to other factors like the CD player itself. All that is known is that the affected discs will exhibit this problem at some point.
Note: If your CD is suffering from 2 or more of the above symptoms, especially problem #1, then your CD is probably suffering from CD rot. There seems to be no correlation between how many times you've played a CD and when CD rot sets in.

The first method used was to determine of the numbers/letters found inscribed on the inner "mirror-like" silver ring on the playing side of the CDs themselves could be used as an indicator. This method proved inconclusive, especially in the case of PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE. In one persons case, the new discs they received from Great Dane had the same numbers/letters as my "rotted" copy. Even in my case, the 3rd CD in my new copy had the same series of numbers/letters as the 3rd disc on my old copy. Some had 2 discs out of the 3 with the same numbers/letters. Needles to say, this method was abandoned rather quickly.

The only other difference I could detect was the proximity of the aluminum layer to the center hole on the CDs themselves. In comparing an old CD suffering from CD rot to a new copy by placing the CDs on a flat surface, I noticed a difference between how close the aluminum layer came to the center hole. On the old (rotted) CDs, the aluminum layer comes closer to the hole than the new CDs. Between the aluminum layer and the center hole is a portion of clear plastic. The "old" CDs only have about 5-6mm of clear plastic between the aluminum layer and the center hole, while the "new" copies have approximately 10-12mm of clear plastic. After conferring with those who had written to me, and after personally checking a few Bruce titles that have rotted and many that have not, I can say that in every case reported the CDs that have rotted have only 5-6mm of clear plastic between the aluminum layer and the center hole.

While I wanted to be conclusive, there are some inconsistencies. Not every Great Dane title that only has 5-6mm of clear plastic between the aluminum and the center hole has suffered from CD rot (yet). So while I cannot definitely say that all Great Dane titles that have 5-6mm of clear plastic will suffer from CD rot, I can only report that all CDs that I know of to have rotted have only had 5-6mm of clear plastic. I can also say that so far no CDs that have the 10-12mm amount of clear plastic have been reported to have rotted.

The other inconsistency is time. Different titles seem to go at different times, even though they were all pressed within the same 6-12 month period between '89-'90. PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE was first reported as a problem in 1995, but other titles have been known for years now.

Here's some additional information provided by Steve Stathis:

I recall back when CD's were in their infancy, that there was some controversy regarding rotting then. If I remember correctly, an article I read described the problem as being related to the way the blanks were manufactured. The problem being that when the discs were cut the aluminum layer was too close to the edge of the disc and not sealed properly from the environment, thus exposing it to oxidation. The other thing was the indexing information of a CD is on the inside the disc, i.e. nearest the center, and that the discs are read from the center out. This may explain why the last tracks on the discs are first affected, i.e. because they are on the outside edge of the disc and hence the first to be subjected to oxidation. I checked this theory about the proximity of the aluminum layer to the outside edge on about a dozen or so official release CD's, both audio and CD-ROM and they all had a much more noticeable gap from the edge to the start of the aluminum layer than the Piece De Resistance discs had.

And more observations provided by Scott Norman:

On the subject of CD rot, something I noticed on at least three of the titles mentioned ("Piece De Resistance," "Good Rockin' Tonight" and "The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle") - the color of the discs were either bronze or a light gold. This is before they start to tarnish. I confirmed this by looking in the book "ROLL YOUR TAPES". My copy of "Piece De Resistance" I had to replace, my copy of "The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle" thus far is OK, and "Good Rockin' Tonight" has obviously darkened around the edges and across the disc, yet still seems to play. I don't know if the original color of the disc is a contributing factor, but it was a common thread with these three titles. Something to think about. I've also heard of problems with "In The Midnight Hour." (editor's note: I've still had no official reports of any copies of "In The Midnight Hour" having problems.)

The following is a list of Great Dane's Bruce Springsteen titles that have been reported to have rotted:

There are other Great Dane Springsteen titles that were released around the same time as the above, but none of them have ever been reported to have suffered from CD rot. They appear to have been manufactured correctly and are so far immune. As far as I know, all of the following have the 10-12mm of clear plastic: Those Great Dane Springsteen titles not mentioned above (i.e. ROSES AND BROKEN HEARTS, other "Follow That Dream/FTD" CD EPs, etc.) were not manufactured at the same time and should not be affected.

My intention is not to start a panic here, I just want to inform those who have Great Dane's discs what to look for to replace or to avoid. Many expressed an interest in whatever I could dig up, more for peace of mind than anything else. And as the number of new CD "Brucelegs" has dwindled considerably and existing titles are drying up, I've actually seen or heard about "used" CD "Brucelegs" being traded and/or sold in some stores. I hope I was able to clear up something here.

To all those that wrote to me about their experiences and who provided information, many thanks. If anyone has additional information I'll continue to take responses.

I still need to know more about some other artists titles released on Great Dane around the same time. I know that there are a few Pink Floyd titles that have suffered from CD rot, but I have not attempted to find out if the findings expressed above apply to these discs as well, but I assume they do. If you have any Great Dane discs, check 'em out and send me a note (especially if they appear to be suffering from CD rot). I'm interested to see if all the "bad" discs have the 5-6mm of clear space.

In addition, some Seagull Records titles of various artists pressed around the same time have been reported to suffer from CD rot. So far the same findings as used to distinguish "bad" Great Dane discs (5-6mm of clear space) applies here as well. If you have any Seagull Records discs, check 'em out and send me a note (especially if they appear to be suffering from CD rot). The only known Seagull Records CD "Bruceleg" that does suffer from CD rot is the 2CD "LIVE AT THE ROXY" set.

I don't want to leave the impression that only bootleg labels have had problems with CD rot. Anyone with a copy of the official CBS import CD single release of Bruce's "Spare Parts" made in the U.K., with studio versions of "Spare Parts" & "Pink Cadillac" and live versions of "Spare Parts" & "Chimes Of Freedom," should know this is not true. And the 5-6mm of clear space rule still applies.

NEW Since my original 1995 post I've heard of at least one other CD "Bruceleg" title that has succumbed to CD rot. This is the 2CD set called "ROCK & ROLL IS HERE TO STAY" on Eagle Records, and it does have the 5-6mm of clear space typical of the other releases suffering the same fate.

It looks like the above list is the last word, at least until we see how all those CD-R releases hold up...

Mail any corrections and/or comments to rpb@brucelegs.com.

Copyright © 1994-2000 Richard Breton.
Last modified on February 1, 2000