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Its Inventor
James T. Russell is usually credited with being the inventor of the CD. He envisioned of a system that could record and replay sounds without any physical contact between parts. -
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The CD Development
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Patent Application
Russell's patent were first filed, focusing on an optical transparent foil that was lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. -
The Task Force
A joint task force of engineers were formed by Sony and Philips (known then as Royal Philips Electronics) after a meeting discussing its size, shape, and technology to design this new audio disc, pushing forward laser and optical disc technology in the process. -
Press Conference
Philip had a press conference to show the accompanying system's audio quality and to impress its rivals on how well their new product was progressing. -
Red Book
Philips and Sony produce and release their Red Book, laying down all the standards for their CDs. -
Public Demonstration
The first public demonstration of this product was on the BBC show "Tomorrow's World," when the Bee Gees album "Living Eyes" was played. -
Commerciality
The first commercial compact disc was produced, which was the 1981 ABBA album "The Visitors." -
First 50 Titles
The CD was officially launched in Japan with the first 50 titles released over there. -
73rd AES Convention
Kees Immink and Joseph Braat presented the first experiments with erasable compact discs -
Western Release
CDs and their accompanying players were officially released in Europe and North America (where CBS Records released 16 titles). -
Patents Upon Patents
The inventor of the CD, James T. Russell, has now earned 26 patents for the CD-ROM technology -
One Million Copies
The 1985 Dire Straits album "Brothers in Arms" was the first to sell over a million CDs, thus proving the product's increasing commercial viability. -
Hundreds of Millions
400 million CDs were now manufactured by 50 pressing plants around the world. -
Read-Only Memory
Sony and Philips officially release the computer-readable CD-ROM, which was an extension of the earlier CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio), and adapted the format to hold any form of digital data. -
Recordable
Sony and Philips introduced the CD-Recordable, which were a new alternative to tape for recording music and copying music albums without defects found in compression used in other digital recording methods. -
Interactive
Philips releases the CD-i, which is an interactive multimedia compact disc created to provide more functionality than an audio CD player or game console, but at a lower price than a personal computer with a CD-ROM drive. -
Photo CD
This time designed by Kodak, this is a system designed for digitizing and storing photos on a CD. -
Video CD
The standard for VCDs (Compact Disc Digital video) was created by Sony Philips, JVC, and Matsushita. It is a digital format for storing video media on a CD. -
Super Audio
Sony and Philips developed and introduced the SACD, which is a high-resolution read-only audio disc that was to provide higher fidelity digital audio reproduction than that of the regular CD. -
All-Time Best Sales Figures
CD sales have reached an all-time high of $13 million in revenue. -
CDs Still Going Strong in Japan
Around 80% of music sales in 2012 consists of both CDs and DVDs, proving the former's strong presence in music distribution in the "Land of the Rising Sun." -
Recent CD Sales
24% of music in the U.S. was purchased on physical media, with two-thirds of it consisting of CDs.
