Memorex (3202-4560) 48x CD-R Spindle (50 Pack)

This particular Memorex CD-R comes in a spindle of 50 stacked up on top of a circular coaster-type holder, with a tiny cylinder running through the holes in the centers of each CD to hold them in place.
Having grown up in the Napster era of downloading MP3's, CD burners and CD-R's became essential to the portability of the music I had downloaded. Napster has, of course, dissipated and file-sharing and downloading programs such as Morpheus, Kazaa, and AudioGalaxy have taken its place.

Although I understand the problems the record companies are having with people downloading their copyrighted music and sharing it online, I don't quite sympathize. Any teenager on an allowance, any savvy music-lover of any age, would be more likely to pay 30 cents per CD-R than $11 to $21 for an artist's CD at a music store.

So here are the basic advantages of a CD-R, namely the Memorex 700MB/80minute 50-pack.

- ability to burn MP3s, other audio files, all movie formats including MPEG and AVI, picture files, programs, documents, and some DVD's for your listening/viewing pleasure

- 700 MB in each CD means an easy way to back up your hard drives and save important files, programs, presentations, etc. that you will likely need or want later but don't want sitting on your hard drive, or even just backing up your system files in case of an emergency.

- 80 minutes means anywhere from 18-30 audio tracks, depending on their length.

- The flexibility of the Internet and file-sharing programs allows you to download pay-per-view sets of your favorite comedian, memorable speeches from politicians, current hits of any genre, and lesser-known works from any era.

- 50 CD-R's in one pack ensures that, with average use, you won't have to make daily trips to the store to pick up more CD-R's.

- CD-R's are available at drugstores such as Rite-Aid and Sav-On, not just electronics stores.

- $15 dollars per 50-pack spindle equals about 30 cents per CD.

- Creating your own audio tracks made up of only the songs you select sure beats the disappointment of buying an artist's CD from a music store and only liking one or two songs.

- CD-R's can be played in the CD-ROM or CD-R drive of your computer, your CD player in the car, your portable CD player, the CD player you may have in your home entertainment system...

- You can also burn games from one CD to another using your computer's CD-R drive. So, as some of us kids have done, one person can buy the CD (audio, game, etc) and whoever chooses to can burn it.

- Your peers are willing to pay $5 for a custom CD that you burn for them. Burning three CDs in this manner (four, including tax and a Jamba Juice run on the way) pays for another 50-pack spindle.

The possibilities are endless! I've used my CD-R's for all of the above tasks since November, when I got my new Sony computer equipped with DVD and CR-R capabilities. A CD burning program is essential for burning all these mediums to a CD. My WinXP has a CD writing wizard, but programs such as SonicStage, Windows Media Player, and others you can buy on the market will facilitate the burning process. I usually use Windows Media Player, but most of the programs you can buy on the market are pretty good.