Compact discs (CDs) invented

Digitally encoded, laser-read discs for storing music and information

Manufacturer Sony and Philips

Date Introduced in 1982

CDs replaced vinyl records as the primary medium of music storage and distribution to consumers. Their popularity helped revitalize the recording industry, and their versatility as a storage medium resulted in the discs being adapted to store computer data and applications as well as music.

When the first commercially available compact discs (CDs) arrived on record stores’ shelves in 1982, the music industry was experiencing one of its increasingly frequent sales slumps. While there was always a handful of million-selling albums or singles, the industry as a whole seemed to be stagnating. Simultaneous, for instance, with the compact disc’s debut was Warner Bros. Records’ headline-making overhaul of its artist roster, in which the company dropped Arlo Guthrie, Van Morrison, and other highly regarded but relatively low-selling performers in an effort to increase its financial viability. MTV, which would soon revolutionize and revitalize the industry, had not yet been launched, and neither hip-hop nor any other new musical genre had emerged to capture the public imagination the way disco had in the 1970’s. CDs altered this situation: They were marketed as being so superior to records in audio quality that they made audiophiles dream of the potential impeccability of digital audio recordings, and of purchasing such recordings to replace their imperfect analog vinyl records.

Slow Initial Adoption

Following as they did the failure of other similarly heralded formats to catch on with the public, CDs were initially greeted with skepticism. They could, after all, be played only on then-expensive CD players, and consumers who had previously invested in the audio-visual equipment necessary to play quadraphonic vinyl records, eight-track cassettes, or laserdisc films were understandably hesitant to take another financial plunge into a pool that might soon dry up.

Compounding their caution were the initially limited number of titles available in the CD format and the even more limited number of fully digital recordings. The industry invented a code, placed on each CD’s jewel case, to indicate whether the recording was completely digital (DDD), digitally remastered from an analog original (ADD), or simply a digitized version of an analog recording (AAD). Music afficionados were well aware that an AAD recording on a CD would be of no higher quality than a vinyl recording and might well be worse.

Classical music was the genre whose enthusiasts provided the initial impetus behind the push for CD technology. One legend even ascribes the CD’s original seventy-four-minute length to Sony vice-president Norio Ohga’s desire for the format to accommodate Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This was in part because the ideal live classical experience is wholly acoustic, whereas most rock performances are expected to be amplified and otherwise filtered through electronic systems. Thus, fidelity in tone is of more concern to the average classical fan than to the average rock fan. As a result, the number of classical titles outnumbered the titles available in rock or other popular styles, and classical labels commissioned new, fully digital recordings of the most famous works.

Controversy over Quality

In the absence of first-hand consumer experience with CDs, rumors began to circulate that exaggerated the format’s virtues. Chief among these virtues was the compact disc’s alleged imperviousness to physical damage. Consumers were erroneously assured that no amount of surface scratching would impair playback and that a compact disc would play perfectly even if smeared with peanut butter.

Rather than counter such assertions, advocates of vinyl argued that the best analog recording and playback equipment yielded fuller, “warmer” sound than digital recording was capable of achieving. (Because digital recording translates sound into a binary language rather than simply capturing it, all such recordings necessarily filter or modify some aspect or portion of the original sound, whereas analog recording is capable in principle of capturing a complete, unaltered sound.) Vinyl’s advocates asserted that the putative superiority of that medium made such flaws as surface noise and occasional skipping worth enduring.

Eventually, however, neither the susceptibility of compact discs to scratching nor the potential audio superiority of vinyl mattered. The equipment necessary even to approach the level of sound fidelity vinyl’s advocates claimed possible was prohibitively expensive. Moreover, the average listener lacked the aural training to detect the imperfections inherent to digital recording, whereas the flaws inherent to records were much easier to notice. CDs, meanwhile, were not impervious, but they were less susceptible to damage than were records, which was all that mattered to a consumer choosing between the two media.

CDs Gain Popularity

As CDs became more popular and more titles were issued in CD format, discs began to take up more shelf space in music stores. Of necessity, the amount of space available for records and audiocassettes decreased. By the end of the 1980’s, references to the “death of vinyl” had become common, with smaller stores phasing out vinyl altogether. For a time, cassettes, which had surpassed vinyl in sales before the rise of CDs, became the highest-selling prerecorded music medium. Unlike vinyl, however, the cassette yielded noticeably inferior sound, a deficiency that, when coupled with the cassette’s fragility and short lifespan, made it ripe for displacement as well.

It became clear that CDs were preferred over vinyl by the majority of consumers and that the new medium was not destined to be a passing fad. Many owners of large record collections began to sell their vinyl albums to used-record stores and to replace them with new digital editions. Record companies, meanwhile, capitalized on this trend in various ways. They released digitized analog recordings of albums right away, then released digitally remastered versions of the same album a few years later, often with “bonus” material or previously unreleased tracks. Thus, fans often purchased multiple versions of the same album.

The companies also exploited the size of the new format: Realizing that large amounts of music could be condensed into a relatively small space, they began to release comprehensive boxed sets of multiple CDs. Such compilations rejuvenated interest in older artists (Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie) and cemented the popularity of more youthful ones. Bruce Springsteen’s three-disc box Live/1975-85 spent seven weeks at the top of Billboard’s album chart, despite its relatively high price. This trend would gather momentum in the 1990’s, eventually leading to the availability of exhaustive boxed sets of practically every major performer in every conceivable genre.

Impact

The increased storage capacity and arguably superior audio reproduction of compact discs inspired musicians of every genre to explore the possibilities unique to the digital age, while the discs’ durability, portability, and relative affordability made music more accessible and user-friendly than ever before. In later decades, the rise of digital audio technology would be as important to producers as to consumers, as the low cost of creating recordings with personal computers and distributing them on CDs would transform the nature of the recording industry.

Bibliography

Baert, Luc, Luc Theunissen, and Guido Vergult, eds. Digital Audio and Compact Disc Technology. Burlington, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995. Detailed technical introduction to the principles of digital audio technology from the Sony Service Center in Europe.

Coleman, Mark. Playback. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2005. Ambitious attempt not only to trace the history of recorded music from Thomas Edison’s cylinders to Internet-friendly MP3 files but also to do so by explaining the influence of recorded music on society and vice versa.

Evens, Aden. Sound Ideas: Music, Machines, and Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2005. A scholarly and technical examination of the artistic implications of the compact disc’s replacement of vinyl as the predominant medium of both making and experiencing recorded music.

Gronow, Pekka, and Ilpo Suanio. International History of the Recording Industry. Translated by Christopher Moseley. New York: Continuum International, 1999. Traces the development of the recording industry, focusing on its key innovations and its most influential artists and record companies.

Maes, Jan, and Marc Vercammen, eds. Digital Audio Technology: A Guide to CD, MiniDisc, SACD, DVD(A), MP3, and DAT. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Science and Technology, 2001. A technical and historical examination of the state of digital audio technology written by two of Sony Europe’s technical-support experts.