A little terminology:
A CD is a Compact Disc, obviously.
A CD-R is a Recordable Compact Disc.
A CD-RW is a Rewritable Compact Disc.
It's not like Beta and VHS, CDs are all essentially the same format, for sake of simplicity and this discusion. You can purchase blank CD-Rs and CD-RWs for recording and storing data. A CD has either audio or data (CD-ROM) recorded on it when you buy it. They look the same, simply speaking they are the same thing. A CD-R or CD-RW can be called a blank CD, and once you burn a CD-R you can call it a CD.
The only time quality comes into play with this is when a CD is pressed by a mass duplication facility that uses a glass master as opposed to burned in a CD-R drive. These mass created CDs tend to be more robust than most burned CD-Rs. You can offset this somewhat by getting high quality CD-Rs for burning. I have seen where cheap media was used by a duplicator and the result was no better than the discs I burned on high quality CD-Rs.
You may find that certain older model CD players will have trouble with CD-Rs, or that certain cheap CD-R media will not play very well.
Since you can't buy a CD to burn to unless it is CD-R or CD-RW then the cost differential question is really irrelevent. You should be able to find CD-Rs in large amounts (100 or more) for around $1 each that are decent quality, and CD-RWs usually run around $2-$3. Only applicable difference between the CD-R and CD-RW is that CD-RWs are erasable. Once you write to a CD-R and close the disc then it's read only.
To record on these (burn a disc) you can use either a computer based CD-R (or CD-RW) drive that will allow you to create both audio and data CDs. There are also other options like stand alone CD recorders that allow you to plug in an audio source and record to CD without having a computer involved. AS far as I know, these do audio only.
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