They told us the Compact Disc would last forever, that it was indestructible. Then they told us it would last for twenty years. More recently, statements by the United States National Archives and Records Administration suggest that a lifespan of 3 to 5 years is more accurate. So what gives? It turns out that the aluminum coating on which the data is recorded is vulnerable to oxidation… in other words corrosion. So how do we preserve the hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars in music we’ve so dutifully bought to replace vinyl? The answer is in what I think is one of the best kept secrets in digitized music… FLAC, Free Lossless Audio Codec (Compressor/Decompressor). FLAC is a cousin of the Mp3 music file. Mp3s are wonderful as far as being supported by many players and occupying the position as the de facto file format in digital music. The problem with the Mp3 format is that it is a lossy format. This means it actually discards bits of information that it deems inaudible to the human ear. Some audiophiles swear they can hear the difference in the original recording and in that of an encoded file using a lossy format like Mp3. So, when you decide to rip that CD to archive it for posterity, you are throwing away bits of audio information to create a smaller audio file. Lost fidelity for the sake of disk space. The great thing about FLAC is that it doesn’t discard audio data. The audio file is compressed without any loss in audio quality. FLAC works similarly to how ZIP files work with data files, except FLAC is designed specifically for audio. FLAC is based on open source and thus is unencumbered by proprietary development and patents. Many players support the playback of FLAC files and they also support ripping audio CDs to the FLAC format. Running a Google search on FLAC players will return tons of results. You may even notice that your favorite player supports the format.

I learned a tough lesson when one of my obscure CDs purchased in the eighties was damaged and I then discovered it was permanently out of print. I ended up having to buy it as an export from Japan for a tidy premium. So, with the low price of disk storage I’ve undertaken the task of ripping my entire CD collection to the FLAC format. This way I know I’ll always have high fidelity copies of my favorite CDs. I’m using a great program named MediaMonkey to rip my CDs to the FLAC format. MediaMonkey is a wonderful universal media manager. It helps organize your media collection, supports file tagging, and syncs to numerous players including the iPod and iPhone. MediaMonkey is free. A premium version with a few more bells and whistles is also available.

So consider yourselves warned. That CD isn’t going to last forever. Check out FLAC along with MediaMonkey and preserve your music for the duration.

Looking for a good alternative to the iTunes store? Give Amazon MP3 a try. Amazon offers millions of songs from a wide array of artists and genres. The tracks are DRM free and encoded at 256 kbps . That means high quality at very manageable file sizes. Amazon’s music store stands out because of the deals. It offers daily and weekly specials and most tracks range between $0.89 and $0.99. Most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99. There is also a surprisingly good selection of free tracks available. Use of the service requires the installation of the Amazon MP3 Downloader, a small helper application that manages store purchases and downloads. It supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. If you are looking to manage music your way, Amazon MP3 is a great option. The socially-networked-conscience can even follow Amazon MP3 on Facebook and Twitter to catch up to the minute updates and deals.