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I also suggest burning all of your audio CD's at 16X

Did you mean 16X, or "16X or slower"? So-called 52X recorders start at about 20X and reach 52X when they reach the outside of the disc with a greater linear velocity. Forcing 16X makes the recorder use a constant linear velocity over the whole disc to minimize the effects of vibration. But is there anything special about 16X that makes it better than 12X?

this affect what's called single-beam readers.

I just wanted to add something to help people understand what your post means. In cheap mechanisms, used in cheap CDDA players, the pickup moves the laser beam back and forth across the data track, centering the head wherever it finds the strongest signal. This is a "single-beam pickup". Because it uses one beam for signal and tracking, the signal level in the parts where less of the beam is over the data is lower, making the data noisier. This strains the error-correcting code more, and uncorrectable errors show up sooner. More expensive mechanisms, used in high-quality CDDA players and computer optical drives, split the beam into three parts: inside, middle, and outside. In such a "three-beam pickup" or "split-beam pickup", the data comes from the middle beam, and the inside and outside beams are used only for tracking, moving the head toward the stronger signal.

Learn more about pickup strategies

Standard mass produced CDs will last a maximum of 33 years. I recall reading of outgassing at the foil-polycarbonate interface.

More detailed thoughts on the subject:

http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub121/sec4.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/ 05/0024258&tid=198

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/gipwg/StabilityStud y.pdf [PDF]

http://www.jts2004.org/english/proceedings/Carou.h tm

http://www.mscience.com/longev.html

And the Google search that lead to these links:

http://www.google.com/search?q=CD+degradation

Longevity of CD-R's has been studied, and a preliminary government study of DVD-CD lifetimes indicates that you should keep multiple copies, check the media for errors annually and create new dups as bit rot occurs. This is also mentioned in this article on archival life for DVD's.

There doesn't seem to be a single method that is known to last 20 years. Of note, optimal storage conditions for optical media is 50-59 degrees F or 10-15C. That's a bit cooler than your average living space and certainly cooler than "human-optimal" office temperatures of around 77F (vs. the 68F "standard" adopted for heating during the first energy crisis).

Yikes. Err, okay, last time I checked, recordable optical media really wasn't so great for longevity. It depends on the dyes used, but if you're just using basic off the shelf CD-Rs, stop, and go find out how long they'll last.

Googled for articles, and found:

Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs
Measures of CD-R Longevity

The first in particular goes into a lot of detail, and references of lot of articles which may make good further reading.

Perhaps you are unaware that a standard CDROM (vintage 1980's) uses 1/3 of its true capacity with error-checking data?

here is an interesting article.

CD-RWs are expected to last about 25 years under ideal conditions (i.e. you write it once and then leave it alone). Repeated rewrites will ccelerate
this. In general, CD-RW media isn't recommended for long-term backups or archives of valuable data.

The rest of this section applies to CD-R.

The manufacturers claim 75 years (cyanine dye, used in "green" discs), 100 years (phthalocyanine dye, used in "gold" discs), or even 200 years
("advanced" phthalocyanine dye, used in "platinum" discs) once the disc has been written. The shelf life of an unrecorded disc has been estimated at
between 5 and 10 years. There is no standard agreed-upon way to test discs for lifetime viability. Accelerated aging tests have been done, but they may not provide a meaningful analogue to real-world aging.

Exposing the disc to excessive heat, humidity, or to direct sunlight will greatly reduce the lifetime. In general, CD-Rs are far less tolerant of environmental conditions than pressed CDs, and should be treated with greater care. The easiest way to make a CD-R unusable is to scratch the
top surface. Find a CD-R you don't want anymore, and try to scratch the top (label side) with your fingernail, a ballpoint pen, a paper clip, and
anything else you have handy. The results may surprise you.

Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place, and they will probably live longer than you do (emphasis on "probably"). Some newsgroup reports have complained of discs becoming unreadable in as little as three years, but without knowing how the discs were handled and stored such anecdotes are
useless. Try to keep a little perspective on the situation: a disc that degrades very little over 100 years is useless if it can't be read in your
CD-ROM drive today.

One user reported that very inexpensive CD-Rs deteriorated in a mere six weeks, despite careful storage. Some discs are better than others.

An interesting article by Fred Langa (of http://www.langa.com/) on http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=15800263&pgno=1
describes how to detect bad discs, and discusses whether putting an adhesive label on the disc causes them to fail more quickly.

By some estimates, pressed CD-ROMs may only last for 10 to 25 years, because the aluminum reflective layer starts to corrode after a while.

One user was told by Blaupunkt that CD-R discs shouldn't be left in car CD players, because if it gets too hot in the car the CD-R will emit a gas that can blind the laser optics. However, CD-Rs are constructed much the same way and with mostly the same materials as pressed CDs, and the temperatures required to cause such an emission from the materials that are exposed would
melt much of the car's interior. The dye layer is sealed into the disc, and should not present any danger to drive optics even if overheated.
Even so, leaving a CD-R in a hot car isn't good for the disc, and will probably shorten its useful life.

See also http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/Media/ Longevity.html,
especially http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Industry/news/media-ch ronology.html about some inaccurate reporting in the news media.

See "Do gold CD-R discs have better longevity than green discs?" on http://www.mscience.com/faq53.html.

This means that if you have a 2X recorder, writing at 2X is *much* better than 1X. If you have a 32X recorder, writing at 32X will produce measurably better discs than writing at 4X, 2X or 1X. This has been true since around 1998 or so. It is quite true that you could get better results with some early 4X recorders when writing at 1X than 4X. However, none of those devices are current any longer.

The "writing slower is better" story is a myth. Please don't spread it further. And yes, if you want more information about disc testing Media Sciences is a company that is dedicated to disc quality and testing. I do not work for them.