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Is there really that much difference between the cheap and the expensive discs?

The first CDRs I bought were Kodac Gold because they were half-price but since I have been buying the cheapest CDs I can find. I never had any problems with these cheap CDs in terms of compatibility and quality of burn.

I can burn on these cheap CDs at x40 speed without any errors.

I read somewhere about an accelerated ageing test which was done on different brand Cds. Good Cds such Kodac Gold could keep data for 125 years before it becomes unreadable but the cheap CDs can only hold it for 25 years. But then who would want to store data on CD for 125 years. In 25 years time there will be other types of storage so cheap CDs are adequate.

So is it worth buying expensive good brands when the cheap ones are as good?

Short answer YES.

But how long do you really need to keep info around for?

I can understand pictures and such for archival purposes, but realistically, by the time the media starts to be less reliable, there's bound to be new and more reliable technology anyways.

As for the accelerated aging, well there's really no substitute for the real thing. That Kodak media you bought is great stuff. Treat them like gold.

Some CD-R when they are recorded contains always lots of errors ( no matter the recording speed , even at 4X ) . try to record cd at low or average speed ( in example 16X ) . Then check errors with software like cdspeed . You ll notice that some contains more errors than others . With some bad cd rom /dvd rom drives you can have issues while trying to read these cd . And remember you'll add scratches later ( unwillingly ). Compare REAL Mitsui , Verbatim and HI-SPACE burned CD-R ( read the ATIP with cdspeed to be sure that these cd have been manufactured by these brands ) to other brands priced thirty per cent cheaper ( i don't know much cheaper than thirty per cent in my country ) .
Often cheaper media is not as good as average priced media . Also at 1.5 euro by high quality media do you think it is wise to try to lower the costs ? ( unless you burn each year hundreds of CD-R ) .

Or you can compare the cd already burned ( few of them were partially unreadable in my case , something like 2 or 3 per cent , problem occurred with large files and cheapest cd ) .

Do the test and come back later to tell us the results .