Well sort of...I don't know much about how cds are made so I've got a few questions. I'm looking for cds on amazon and sometimes I'll see an album that will have a cd release date that is different from the album release date. I think one I found was Jay Z's Reasonable doubt. The album was released in 96 but the copies that amazon sells were made in 06. Why are there two different dates?
Is one better than the other? How often are cds made? Will it say on the back of a cd case when the cd was actually made?
Also, why will the cds sometimes have different record labels listed?

If anyone has any info I would appreciate it

Artists sometimes change labels and sometimes take their older albums with them if they own the rights to them. Sometimes an album will be reissued in a new edition or new packaging, hence why you'll see an album with two release dates.

Infidel.

civiclx: Your question is more about why the dates are different. It's probably just a different manufacturing process. I don't pay too much attention to those dates anyway. 99% of the time the actual music isn't changing.

It's just a re-issue. Probably Jay-Z wanted to get it under his Roc-a-Fella label so he could get more royalites, so since it has a new catalog number it gets a new release date.

Most re-issues are identical to the previous versions and only obsessive collector types care about differentiating the original and the re-issue.

However this is not the case with vinyl since when a re-issue is done they have to use new plates to press the record which will inevitably sound different than the original.

hey thanks for all of the replies. when ordering cds that have been out for awhile i would prefer to get the original releases so that's why i was curious