"Music" vs "Data" CD-Rs

[Ron]

I visited Frys the other day and saw that most manufacturers were now labeling the basic CD-Rs as "music" vs. "data" now, and charging more for the ones labeled "music". I assumed it was a scam and bought another bunch of blank data disks. I wondered what was up with that, and here's what I found:
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/stepo ... 78,00.html

"Call for Help" recently received this email from Melvin, who writes:

There are blank CDs in stores labeled as data and music CDs. I've been told that data CDs can be used for music, photos, and data. Is this true?

Melvin, it's absolutely true. For all practical purposes, if you are using your PC to burn CDs, there really is no difference between music CD-Rs and data CD-Rs except for price. Using your PC's CD-R/RW drive you can burn music, images, and data to both data and music CD-Rs.

As Melvin may have discovered, audio CD-Rs are more expensive than data CD-Rs. What's the reason for this? Well, anything that's marketed as a music CD-R contains a royalty fee that is intended to compensate artists. Audio cassette tapes contain a similar fee. As you can imagine, CD-R manufacturers don't want to inflate the price of their CD-Rs so they market the same media under a different name.

Technically, music CD-Rs may have a special code that allows them to be used in stand-alone music recording devices. These stand-alone devices check for the code. If the CD-R doesn't contain the code, then the media can't be used in the device. This ensures you won't be able to use a data CD-R in devices that are marketed specifically for recording music.

Since PC drives don't check for this special code, you can use both data CD-Rs and music CD-Rs for any purpose. The bottom line is you'll save yourself some cash by using only data CD-Rs for burning CDs on your PC.

[ScottieK]

Technically, music CD-Rs may have a special code that allows them to be used in stand-alone music recording devices. These stand-alone devices check for the code. If the CD-R doesn't contain the code, then the media can't be used in the device. This ensures you won't be able to use a data CD-R in devices that are marketed specifically for recording music.

My girlfriends parents have a dual deck stand alone CD burner that I taught them to use. I've used data CDs in the machine and it burned just fine. In fact the Industrial CD burner at the venue I DJ at works the same way. I pop in any CD and it burns exactly what I'm playing over the system.

What's really funny about "data" vs "music" CDs is that music IS data. Pictures are data too. Just different file types....

[Kyle]

isn't it just about length? 74 minutes vs 80 minutes?

standard cd length is 74minutes, but they can produce a cd that hold 80minutes, AND i read somewhere that you can actually squeeze out a few more minutes if you configure your burning software right, but im not sure about that one.

[Mr Awesomer]

It's not about length. The cd that holds 80 minutes of music can hold more data then the cd that holds 74 minutes of music.

700MB of data = 80 mintues of music
640MB of data = 74 minutes of music

At least, I think it was 640MB... haven't seen a 74 minute CDRs for sale in ages.

[Kyle]

so then is it just a marketing ploy?

[Mr Awesomer]

You didn't read Ron's post?

[Kyle]

umm, yeah, but ummm, yeah. oops