When was . cd introduced

CDs can hold up to megabytes. This equates to up to 80 minutes of uncompressed audio. By billion CDs were sold worldwide. Three years earlier, Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in September Before CDs, music was stored and played on vinyl and cassette tapes. Vinyl discs were a lot bigger than CDs and could be broken easily. Cassette tapes used magnetic tape, and the music played through from left to right.

Once one side was done, you flipped it over for more songs on the other side. Even though cassette tapes were small, CDs soon became more popular because you could skip directly to the song you wanted to listen to. By , over billion CDs had been bought and sold around the world. In , iTunes was launched by computer company Apple. For the first time, people could buy songs online individually instead of having to buy whole CDs.

Plus, you could store the songs in playlists on your computer. In , music streaming site Spotify was launched. This week brought news that all but marks the end of an era in the world of recorded music. Best Buy, one of the last big-box electronics chain stores still in business, will be phasing out all CD sales by July 1, Target is expected to make a similar move, selling CDs only on consignment, which will essentially leave the aging digital disc to be relegated to a few last bastions, including Walmart, a motley collection of record shops with a CD section at the back, and of course, online distributors like the all-powerful Amazon.

Many of us have rich memories of our time with the Compact Disc, from the first cartridge we cracked open outside a Sam Goody, to the overstuffed wallets and CD towers in our living rooms that stored hours upon hours of digital music bliss.

As such, we decided to see the CD off in style with this trip down memory lane. Follow us below as we chronicle the rise and demise of the late, great, Compact Disc. The sample rate is based on the Nyquist theorem shout out to our fellow nerds , which, in this case, outlines the minimum rate needed to replicate all frequencies humans can theoretically hear.

The resolution is still regarded by many as the optimal digital standard. Born, as Sony states , nearly years after the first phonograph player, the CDP made its way to the U. Following an initial offering of around 20 available albums at launch, the CD exploded over the next few years. Released on CD in May , the hit album became a musical mainstay, and vinyl fans and audiophiles began to purchase CD players in droves to adopt the growing format.

By , CD sales eclipsed vinyl, and overtook the cassette in The mono Long Play record of the s and 60s had an extremely good sound quality, which was due partly to the advanced state that recording techniques had by then reached, as well as the constant improvements in the gramophones, which by then were called record players or turntables. The stereo record was introduced in the mids. At first this was a disappointment, because the sound quality was noticeably poorer that that of comparable mono records.

However the record industry was able to improve the quality of stereo records significantly within a few years, and even introduced 'quadraphonic' 4 channel stereo discs at the beginning of the s.

But quadraphonic sound was not successful. Not only were the techniques used at the limits of what was achievable at the time, but also the biggest problem was that in a short time four different and incompatible quadraphonic systems came onto the market at the same time!

This meant that music enthusiasts had to buy four different decoders plus a new pick-up element with a specially shaped diamond needle to allow them to listen to the different quadraphonic records! The digital era. Shortly after the demise of quadraphonic sound, the electronics industry moved into the digital era, and particularly optical recording.

Following the pioneering work of Philips on an optical video player in the early 70's, a project was started in within Philips and its Research laboratories to develop a digital optical audio disk with error correction code. Parallel work on digital optical audio recording was done in a number of companies and Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc at the Audio Fair. On 8 March , Philips demonstrated for the international press a The demonstration showed that it is possible by using digital optical recording and playback to reproduce audio signals with superb stereo quality.