Tag Archives: dirt

Protect your CDs inside your dance bags

Have you ever had this experience? You are at the dance competition and the CD with your competition music won’t play. The judges ask you for a backup CD, you give it to them, and it also won’t play. You look at the underside of your CDs, and much to your dismay, they are complete scratched up.

I sincerely hope this has never happened to you, and that it never will.

I’ve previously written about using only top-quality, name-brand CD-Rs to minimize the chances of getting a bad CD-R, or a bad lot of CD-Rs. I’ve also given you the Top 5 care tips for your precious CDs.

Tip number 5 from the preceding list is DO NOT put your CDs in your dance bag! The reason why is that, while you may have your CDs in a jewel case or a sleeve, all it takes is ONE grain of sand to work it’s way into the sleeve for it to start scratching the sensitive plastic surface, making it completely unreadable.

My girlfriend, Lesley Lambert, who is a dance teacher and a dance mom, came up with a brilliant solution. Since it only makes sense that dancers are going to carry around their competition CDs, backup CDs, and rehearsal CDs in their dance bag, she realized she could protect them from dirt and foreign objects by putting the CD into a plastic baggie. A standard sandwich baggie may be too small; one size bigger may be required.

So if you are going to put your CDs in your dance bag, put them inside a plastic bag and seal them first, so that they remain playable!

Top 5 care tips for your CDs

In today’s world, often the best way to store and play your dance and competition music is on your iPod, iPhone, mp3 player, or laptop. But CDs haven’t gone away just yet, and is still the most reliable source for playing music at competitions, because society has not yet quite embraced cloud computing.

So many dance teachers, studios, and dancers still rely on CDs for their music, as well they should. But many people also don’t realize that these shiny discs that play your music beautifully with no hiss are NOT indestructible. So here are my Top 5 tips to make sure your CD plays right every time, and does not start skipping at the worst time… like in the middle of competition!

  1. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep your CDs in its sleeve or its case.
  2. NEVER NEVER NEVER stack CDs on top of each other… this can cause circular scratches, which are the worst kind, much worse than scratches that go from the center out to the edge.
  3. ALWAYS handle a CD by its edges; avoid fingerprints on the shiny part
  4. DON’T expose a CD-R (a custom burned CD) to direct sunlight. Too much exposure to a strong light source will render a CD-R unreadable.
  5. DON’T keep your CDs in your dance bag. Dance bags can collect dirt and other abrasive particles as they travel around, and this debris can work its way into your CD sleeves which will rub around and cause scratches.
  6. If you absolutely have no other choice but to put your CD in a dance bag, put the CD and it’s case inside a sealed ziploc bag so that dirt can’t get in and ruin the playability of it.