Happy birthday to the CD

As unbelievable as it may seem, the CD is 25 years old today, and as a mark of this milestone experts look back at what the CD has achieved.

The first CD was produced twenty-five years ago today at a German Philips factory, which changed the face of the music industry forever. Despite more recent developments in digital media, the CD is still the principal medium used in record sales, and in the last 25 years more than 200 million CDs have been sold. The CD was a joint venture between technology heavyweights Sony and Philips, who first product was The Visitors by Abba. The biggest hurdle in the development of the CD was convincing the public that this format was the way forward.

The first CDs began to be developed in 1979, and were able hold an hour of audio. However, subsequently the capacity was extended to 74 minutes, to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This genre was reflected in the retail of the first CDs which went on sale in November 1982, and were mainly classical recordings. The reason for this was that classical music listeners were believed to be better-off than pop music fans, and therefore more willing to pay the higher prices for the CDs and CD players. Despite their immense popularity at the time, the rise of digital download sales in the last ten years has meant that the sale of CDs has rapidly decreased. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), digital sales will account for a quarter of all worldwide music sales by 2010. This is exemplified by the fact that in the first six months of this year, CD sales in the UK have dropped by 10%, whereas download sales have increased by 50%.

Source:

BBC News