25 Years of the Compact Disc

My goodness. Seems like yesterday that the shiny 8cm discs known as CDs first came out...It was 25 years ago to the day that Philips manufactured the first Compact Disc. The discs became a fast favorite to the analog vinyl and tape alternatives of the time--scanning through music, programming tracks to play in the order I preferred to hear them (and eliminating the tracks I wasn't crazy about). It's no wonder that the my family's CD player--purchased a little over a year after the introduction of the CD players in March 1983--became a coveted device so quickly. Ironically, one of my own early CD purchases would have been the album that was the first CDs manufactured--ABBA's "The Vistors."

The CD's humble roots began back in 1979, when Philips and Sony engineers set forth to create a new digital audio disc. Over 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide since the format's introduction--and its near ubiquity makes it a clear leading choice choice for sharing and preserving content.

That the CD has been around for 25 years is both humbling and fascinating to consider. I find myself wondering about the newer media techologies--DVD, Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD--and what kind of longevity they might end up enjoying. DVD is close to achieving a similar level of universal availability, for movies, at the least.

But what about the new disc formats just introduced in 2006, and still battling to get a foothold in the market? Will they ever be given the chance to snag the kind of market share that would allow them to proclaim, 25 years from now, over 200 billion served, er, sold?

Somehow, I have to say I suspect that will not be the case. Like today's network television shows, technologies seem to have an ever-decreasing window to establish themselves and gain market share before a newer, sexier, competing technology surfaces. Blu-ray may be leading the war for now, but already talk is swirling of more technologically advanced alternatives, like holographic storage. Even if holographic is a decade out from being a consumer-friendly reality, will Blu-ray (or HD DVD, should that format regain the lead) ever have the chance to amass a similar amount of support? Time will tell...

Comments

Compact discs. Do you know that William Shatner gives Star Trek credit for introducing the concept?

I saw a ST retrospective a few years ago where Big Bill pointed out that in an episode in the 1960s (trekkies, help me out here). Had to do with a dying civilization and all the data was on silver discs...Anyway, for those of us who love audio, CDs were a very big deal when they first arrived.

Analog purists hated them (some still do) but many of us were just blown away by the idea that our favorite records wouldn't be ruined by pops, hiss and scratches. Expensive as they were (at first) it was obvious from the early days that CDs were going to destroy vinyl as the go-to format.

Not so clear today between hi-def DVD formats...this is a much more incremental improvement than CD was...

RMcLeod

August 17, 2007

8:47 PM PT