People who are new to computers and duplication, will sometimes confuse CD-R music media with CD-R data media. While confusing them is easy to do, the two are different indeed. Even if you have some experience with computers, confusing them is very easy to do.
As you may or may not know, there are differences between music CD-R and data CD-R disks. The obvious difference is, of course, the name. With one named CD-R music and one named CD-R data, you know there has to be some type of difference between the two.
What’s known is that there are indeed technical differences in what is embedded in blank music CDs when compared to blank data CDs. These differences center upon bytes that are within the sub channels of the blank music disks.
This doesn’t affect the quality, as both audio and data can be duplicated onto both music CD-R disks and data CD-R disks. You can burn data onto music CD-R, and music onto data CD-R media without any problems. Keep in mind, whether or not you get data on a music CD-R will depend on what type of hardware you use to duplicate the CD.
If you plan to use a PC to do all of your burning, it won’t matter. A PC doesn’t differentiate between music CD-R and data CD-R. PCs will see a blank media CD and duplicate information on it that pertains to the settings you have outlined in the software you plan to use to burn the CD.
If you plan to use a seperate CD burner, it may or may not let you burn data or music on a generic blank or data CD-R. Some hardware are funny like that, as they only want you to use blank media with well known brand names that they have approved of.
If you plan to do most of your CD duplication on a computer, it really doesn’t matter which type of blank CD-R you use. They will both work fine in most cases when you store either music or data. When storing data, you have a limit of 700 MB, while music will have a limit of a little over an hour of tunes.
For your duplication needs, computers are the ideal way to copy media. You can use equipment outside of a computer and CD burner, although you’ll need to check the operations manual and see what they recommend for media. If you have a computer or access to one, it can do wonders in the areas of music and data CD-R duplication.