The CD's 30th Birthday!

While I may be a few days off, the compact disc, commonly known as a CD, changed the way people listened to music.  Released by Sony in Japan on October 1,1982, the world's first CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was anything but cheap.  At a price of $1000, the CDP-101 makes Apple's highest level iPad ($830) look like a bargain.  It was released six months later in the United States, and, because of limited supply, every one sold for full price!  Before its release, the music market used vinyl albums/singles and cassettes. (What's a vinyl?)  The mass market took to CDs with open arms, while audio junkies had more mixed opinions.  Some loved the clarity, while others thought it was cold and hard.  The CD, an evolution of the laser disc, was created by the combined effort of Phillips and Sony - two companies who created prototype CD players earlier in the 1970's.

Despite its age, the CD will probably live to see another day.  With how fast technology advances today, I'm surprised no one bothered to come up with the CD's evolution, though one could argue that's what digital music (mp3, aac, etc.) is for.  Just this year, for the first time in history, digital music sales have surpassed physical sales.  Only time will tell what will happen to the CD, but with growing popularity in digital music downloads and streaming services like Spotify, the CD will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs and join their VHS, cassette, and Vinyl album (Seriously, what are these things?!) brethren in the sky.  But for now, CDs aren't going anywhere.

*Fun Fact: The first full album to be released on a CD is Billy Joel's 52nd Street.