The Compact Disc (CD) on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc (CD) in Japan on this day in 1982. On the same day, Sony released the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind on the same day. 

The first commercially released CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street on October 1, 1982, in Japan. The first commercial music compact disc (CD) pressed in the U.S. was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA", pressed at the opening of CBS Records CD production plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984. The first mass-produced CD manufactured was ABBA's The Visitors. The first CD to sell a million copies was Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, released in 1985. 

The first CD I've ever owned was Steve Earle's Guitar Town.

The CD was intended to be 11.5 centimetres in diameter, but was increased to 12 centimetres so that it can hold all 74 minutes of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. David Bowie was the first to have his entire catalog of songs converted to CD format. 

The CD replaced the cassette tape, which was first developed in 1962, and the vinyl record, which was created in 1930. The phonograph has been around since the 1880's. The CD has since been replaced by the MP3 and digital streaming. 

Oh, and the the 8-Track Tape was never a good idea.