Philips Celebrates the 25th Birthday of the Compact Disc

August 17 marks the birthday of a very important innovation in the way we listen to music. Tomorrow will be the 25th birthday for the compact disc, better known as the CD. On August 17, 1982, in Langenhagen, Germany, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the first CD in their Philips factory. Since that time, music has been more convenient, clearer and scratch-resistant.

The birth of the CD in Germany in 1982 heralded in the era of digital music and signified the beginning of the end of analogue. The very first CD was "The Visitors" by ABBA and was produced by Polygram, a recording company. When the compact disc was finally released to the public in November of 1982, there were around 150 titles available. And, of course, a compact disc player was needed and Philips had it covered with their CD100. The player was available in Japan in November; the U.S. and European releases of this technology occurred in March of 1983.

Even though the birth of the CD occurred in 1982, it was being developed as early as 1979. Many decisions had to be made regarding the size of the CD and how much storage it would have. The original idea called for an hour of playtime, but it was eventually changed to 74 minutes to accommodate Beethoven's 9th

Piet Kramer, who at the time was a member of the optical group at Philips that made a significant contribution to the CD technology, commented on Philips' and Sony's collaborative work in a press release: "When Philips teamed up with Sony to develop the CD, our first target was to win over the world for the CD. We did this by collaborating openly to agree on a new standard. For Philips, this open innovation was a new approach - and it paid off. In the late 70s and early 80s, we never imagined that one day the computing and entertainment industries would also opt for the digital CD for storing the growing volume of data for computer programs and movies."

Throughout 1983, there were over 1000 titles available for consumers to choose from on CD. 1985 was the beginning of an aggressive marketing campaign. Philips teamed up with Dire Straits and the release of the album "Brothers in Arms." They both heavily promoted the CD and its superior digital sound. "Brothers in Arms" was the top selling CD at the time and the 3rd most popular of the decade. It was a turning point in the acceptance of the compact disc by consumers.

"The Compact Disc has proven its significance in bringing the highest quality of music to consumers who wish to enjoy scratch free music. The enormous success of the CD over the last twenty-five years has opened many new opportunities for consumers to make the most of their music at home and on the move," said Lucas Covers, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Philips Consumer Electronics. "It has played a pivotal role in the shift from analogue music to digital, not least for the DVD as well in music, though moreover in helping lay the foundation for even new technologies such as Blu-ray quality today," he added.

Because of the birth of the compact disc 25 years ago, we now are able to enjoy a wide variety of technological advances that directly stemmed from the original CD: CD-Rom, CD-R and CD-RW, DVD, DVD R, DVD RW and Blu-ray. It is estimated that over 200 billion CDs have been sold, worldwide, in the past quarter of a century. To give you an idea how many that is, consider this: A CD is a mere 1.5 mm thick, however if you stacked all of the CDs that have been sold over the past 25 years, it would be capable of circling the Earth six times! Happy birthday, compact disc!

SOURCE:

Philips Press Release. URL: (http://origin.newscenter.philips.com/about/news/press/20070816_25th_anniversary_cd.page) Symphony. It was decided the best size for a CD would be 115 mm. All of these standards were preserved in Philips and Sony's "The Red Book" around 1980.