Reply To: CD-Rs! Fail me, and you’re through!
In my experience, the CD-Rs most likely to go bad have an adhesive label on the top side.
Yes, my experience, too. Especially the thicker glossy ones. I early stopped doing that so a cover/inlay was enough. And the brand does make a difference. Other issues may be burning too fast and too cheap brands that I also often had gone bad reliably. I have still my first CD-R from late 1990s that has even an non glossy label even and it played flawlessy some weeks ago.