CD
celebrates 25th birthday
Developed in a joint effort between Philips and
Sony, the CD turned 25 years old on August 17th
and is still the dominant audio format (for now,
despite the growing popularity of digital downloads),
having sold over 200 billion worldwide.
Although the first CD produced was "The Visitors"
by Abba, the majority of CD album releases around
that time were classical, as lovers of classical
music were believed to be more affluent than rock
and pop fans, and were more able to afford the higher
prices of CDs and the expensive players.
As the prices of the players came down other genres
of music made it onto CD and in 1985, "Brothers
In Arms" by Dire Straits became the first CD
to sell more than one million copies, and is still
the world's most successful CD album today.
The main advantages of CD over vinyl were the clarity
of sound (no clicks or pops) and the fact they were
virtually indestructible (remember the news
items with CDs covered in honey? - BBC video).
The CD was originally thought of as a replacement
for vinyl records, but by the mid 1980's it began
to be seen as a storage medium with CD-ROM arriving
in 1985 and CD-Recordable in 1990.
Over the years the CD format hasn't stood still,
it's continued to evolve with new uses and additions
such as Super Audio CD, Video CD, Photo CD, Enhanced
CD, and even DualDisc (half CD and half DVD) as
recently as 2004.
So what now for the CD? Our industry has seen a
large shift towards online digital distribution
with the increase in broadband speeds, however insiders
believe the CD is here to stay, at least for a few
more years!
See Also:
> Philips - The
inventor of the CD
> Sony - A
great invention
> Wikipedia - Compact
Disc
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