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| Compact Disc |
Today, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first compact disc.
It was October 1, 1982, when Billy Joel’s “52nd Street” album was
released in Japan in this new media format, a few year after its release
in vinyl. The CD launch coincided with the release of the first CD
player, the Sony CDP-101.
This laser-based format, which was developed jointly by Sony and
Philips, promised “perfect sound forever,” with frequency response that
covered the entire human hearing range. The CD was also marketed as
“virtually zero maintenance” compared to vinyls, with its much-smaller
5-inch diameter, futuristic-looking plastic design, and longer playback
minutes at up to 74 minutes without having to flip sides.
Despite criticisms about the “CD-quality sound,” or how CDs sounded
“tinny and brittle” compared to the “warmth and fullness” of vinyl, the
format took off after a few years. Car manufacturers began to integrate
CD players in dashboards, people have replaced portable cassette
players with CD-playing counterparts, and homes have ditched the old
turntables with stereos that can play CDs.
And as the relevance of CDs is becoming less and less with the
introduction of MP3s and other digital formats, we cannot dismiss
whether these plastic discs will be off the shelves like cassettes.
Besides, the LPs–the ones CDs tried to make obsolete–are still there in
the market.
Source: The Next Web and PC Magazine
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