creating an audio cd in 2025

The other reason CD audio is being sought after again is because of cars and annoyances with smartphones.

Want to know how many cars were made with CD audio players? Millions. How do I know? Years ago, I owned a nearly-base spec 1986 Chevrolet Camaro, and it had a factory installed General Motors radio with CD player. It was just single-disc, but the point is it had one even on a 1986 model when CD was still a very new thing.

Cars with CD players were around for about 35 years. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a few 2025 models still offered it.

The smartphone annoyances I'm talking about where music playback is concerned is that it's not as simple as 1) pick song, 2) play, 3) adjust volume. An app has to be launched, maybe a login is required if it's a streaming thing, and so on.

With CD, it literally is a 1-2-3 process. Pick song, play, adjust volume. And pretty much all car CD players have a shuffle feature, so the songs don't have to be played in order.

How many songs can fit on an audio CD? 80 minutes of music. If each song is 3 minutes in length, that means 26 songs can fit on the disc. If you want to get really technical about it, the maximum number of audio tracks that can be written to CD is 99. You could burn 99 "songs" to CD if they were all 0.8 seconds in length each.

Before you ask, yes, Brasero will show how much you can fit on the disc before you burn it, so you don't have to guess.

Given the fact the majority of car owners drive a car over 10 years old, it most likely has a CD player. It's right there, ready to be used. Nothing to plug in, no fumbling about with wires or connectors or anything like that. Insert a disc and start the music.

CD players in cars are easy. Easy is good. You just have to make the discs.

Published 2025 Feb 27