The Compact Disc: The rise and fall of the CD | History Stories

The arrival of the CD in 1981 changed the music world forever. In April 1981, when star conductor Herbert von Karajan launched the marketing of the "Compact Disc" together with representatives of the technology companies Philips and Sony, no one could have imagined what would follow. The CD became the dominant format for the distribution of music for years to come. More importantly, it ushered in the digital era, in which music could be copied without sacrificing quality.
This episode of History Stories is all about the rise and fall of the CD.

Report by Josephine Günther

#dwhistoryandculture #music #digital

[amajtheory]

CD's will never go away. They are possibly the best storage media. They're equivalent to the 3.5mm headphone jack.

[DivineFate]

I now hear that CD's are making a comeback, because when you hear musics streaming from Spotify or other types of streaming app, they have a decision to remove it because they own the music. BUT, with vinyls, cassettes and CD's like I have, YOU own the music. Once you purchase it, it's yours to keep, just as long as you have a player to play musics with. This is why I would love to start up a collections of CD's I once had.

[mondoenterprises]

I've been crushing it with cds for 40 years, and 5000 cds. Love the outtakes and alternate cuts and bonus materials you don't get with vinyl. And the price.

[nathanielenochs]

Teens today will never know how it feels to actually have something that you know will never be taken from you

[graemeknowles]

I will always purchase Compact Discs..❤

[tudormiller]

I love CD, it's so underrated, especially now that vinyl has overtaken CD now. I don't have space in my room for a vinyl collection anyway.

[monaural.]

Not giving up my vinyl, Not giving up my tapes, Not giving up my CDs. There is no “rise and fall” of ANYTHING.

[CoasterManOfficial]

There should really be a comeback for these little discs. They're awesome.

[theogusat]

It made people respect music. I remember buying Supreme by Robbie Williams. You had to listen to the whole thing because you bought it. Now you just have a hit and the artist is gone. And producing music gave people jobs. The process, because it was difficult, made the producers more selective.

[gp.]

FACT CHECK: In 2021, CD sales increased in the US for the first time since 2004. The RIAA reported that CD revenue made a dip in 2022, before increasing again in 2023 and overtook downloading for the first time in over a decade.

[rarebrockstark]

The thing about physical media is that it's not gonna be overtaken by streaming for the simple fact that there are people who want the best quality music.

I buy CDs so I can rip FLACs, I buy DVDs and Blu-Rays to rip them, and I know that there are thousonds if not millions of people just like me who will go through that effort for better quality. Until we are all able to watch Deadpool at a consistent 24Mbs anywhere at any time like on the Blu-Ray: physical media will not die.

[yucw]

Dw, please do more research and get the history corrected. It was Philips that invent the compact disc CD. Philips learn from past history and open the cooperation, worked with Sony for four years, not the other way as u reported, to ensure the success of CD against other Telefunken format.

[christophervan]

Listening to mine right now. Cheapest way to get incredible sound but you have to do your homework

[php]

I never gave up my CD collection and players. They are all carefully stored until I build a new PC. Then I dedicate an entire SSD just for WAV, FLAC and ACC music files after ripping my old CDs. So far, I have nearly 1.2 Tb worth of music from my CD collection plus another 0.4 Tb of downloaded WAV and FLAC files.

[wheatonna]

Record companies assured the demise of vinyl by - for example- refusing returns from retailers on unsold LPs, thus ending a longstanding practice. Yes, consumers did prefer CDs, and I was one of those. This story makes me think about all the shopping malls that left our downtown retail dead. And look at the malls today!

[gp.]

It was NOT Richard Edlinger's version of Beethoven's 9th symphony, but Herbert Van Karajan's version which calculated the original length of the Audio Compact disc (2:38)

[ingarchris]

The Compact Disc is spectacular :^)
Thanks . . . .

[neilsmith]

hasnt fallen infact they are becomming popular again alone with LPs.

[matteoromenghi]

A great revolution.
My first compact disc, Thriller by Michael Jackson.
My first compact disc player, Pioneer PD9010-X.

[Fantom]

Streaming and online platforms can go any day and overall their services are not yours to keep. Meanwhile, physical copies like CD, Cassette and vinyl records will guarantee you a lifetime of audio quality and it’s actually yours to keep.