When was cds first invented

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 But perhaps just as memorable was the packaging in which it arrived. Comprising six-inch by inch casings of cardboard and plastic, the so-called longbox packaging was several times bigger than necessary.

The design was, in part, an effort to make it easier to flip through discs on shelving units designed for LPs, but it was also aimed at theft prevention. Longbox packaging was estimated to be responsible for creating Eventually, the keepers would go away and leave only the cellophane-wrapped jewel cases we think of today with magnetized security sticker attached. In Phillips and Sony developed the compact disc CD , an optical disc used to store and playback digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively.

CDs can hold up to megabytes. This equates to up to 80 minutes of uncompressed audio. By billion CDs were sold worldwide. That may well have saved him a lot of money, because at the beginning of the s record sales collapsed; from more than million copies in to barely 6 million in It would take until after the Second World War before the LP became commercially available, even though it had been developed as long ago as the early s by RCA.

The shellac record continued to exist for some time next to the unbreakable LP, but it disappeared as soon as the 45 r. 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. Through the co-operation with Sony the final diameter was 12 cm and the initially proposed resolution accuracy of 14 bits was increased to 16 bits.

With this concept Philips and Sony took the first step in setting a worldwide standard.