When did CDs exist? Everything about the story
The older readers have probably known since when CDs were released. The silver discs heralded the digital era of music and were a completely new medium at the time.
Music goes digital - the history of the CD
Twelve centimeters in diameter, 1.1 millimeters thick and six kilometers of tread - these are the dimensions of a compact disc, or CD for short.
- In 1982, the Philips subsidiary PolyGram and Sony introduced the first CDs for digital storage of music. The discs first came on the market in Japan, then a year later in Europe and the USA.
- The first pieces of music that Polygram released on CD were also the last songs by the world-famous Swedish pop group ABBA. Sony started with the album "52nd Street" by Billy Joel. Classical music was also there from the start: Herbert von Karajan recorded the "Alpine Symphony".
- The CD was to be the successor to the vinyl records that had been common until then and promised not only to play music in better quality, but also to be more durable.
- The discs were a revolution at the time. The digital sound quality, freedom from noise and crackling were the advantages over the records. In addition, the plates no longer had to be turned over.
- Nevertheless, the music publishers were initially skeptical of the new medium - wrongly, as it quickly became apparent: the small discs dominated the music market just eight years after its introduction.
- In the meantime, CD technology has been somewhat replaced by other formats such as MP3, but is still an integral part of many music lovers.
- Die-hard vinyl fans were never able to convince the CD: a CD is free from noise and crackling, but its sound volume is missing. What experts say about the question of whether vinyl or CD sounds better can be read in another article.
