Thread: The CD is 30 years old today

The CD is 30 years old today
http://www.whathifi.com/blog/the-cd-is-30-years-old-today

I give it six months...

Yeah, heard that on radio. Billy Joel's' 52nd Street' was apparently the first cd album to be released.

Its funny, back then they said a cd lasts like 100 years. Well, depending on how/where you store it (eg. the temperature/humidity in a room), it may only last for like 20 or 30 max.

So there was a lot of hype back then.

I think the cd will last, but maybe like the vinyl has lasted, in smaller print runs. Vinyl is still around in rock, r&b, techno and all that. THe big classical labels stopped making them around 20 years ago.

& even if they disappear, a second hand market for cd's will still exist. Again, just like for vinyl.

Digital technology though is 'the future' but of course, formats always change. Nothing lasts forever, even the type of file or software & hardware needed to access your digital music library.

Bye bye CDs, hello quartz glass which can save my data until I'm 100 million years old and have survived multiple holocausts?

^^WEll going off that, the Rosetta Stone has lasted for more than 2 thousand years. I wonder if the cd will last that long?...

I have 78s that are 110 years old and they still sound great when I play them on my Victrola.

Originally Posted by Sid James

Its funny, back then they said a cd lasts like 100 years. Well, depending on how/where you store it (eg. the temperature/humidity in a room), it may only last for like 20 or 30 max.

Many of my CDs are 25-27 years old, and have travelled half-way around the world with me. They all play fine. What hasn't lasted is the horrible foam stuff they put in to "protect" the CDs in early box sets. That has disintegrated to a horrible sticky dust.

Originally Posted by Sid James

^^WEll going off that, the Rosetta Stone has lasted for more than 2 thousand years. I wonder if the cd will last that long?...

It may have lasted but the quality's cr@p - scratches and crackles as bad as vinyl, and as for the music itself...nothing but Egyptian Pop Factor X!

I purchased my first one in 1985 I think,

What amused me about the early days was when yuppie types used to gab their gums about forking out 500 quid for a CD player just so they could play the latest Dire Straits, Eurythmics and Phil Collins discs which cost about £15 each - mind you, with that kind of Bistro-friendly repertoire I wouldn't like to say if they were proudly boasting or inadvertently admitting their guilt. I myself had absolutely no interest in CDs at all until old back catalogues started to become available, especially those long-wished for albums which had been deleted years before I got a chance to buy them. And it got even better in the mid-to-late 90s when some packaging became less clunky, documentation improved and remastering became the norm (admittedly some were badly done, but hey...). I decommissioned my turntable well over 15 years ago and as I have virtually all of my fave old albums on CD I don't miss vinyl one little bit - in fact, I've managed to flog a fair amount of my old LPs off to an ex-colleague.

Originally Posted by elgars ghost

What amused me about the early days was when yuppie types used to gab their gums about forking out 500 quid for a CD player just so they could play the latest Dire Straits, Eurythmics and Phil Collins discs which cost about £15 each - mind you, with that kind of Bistro-friendly repertoire I wouldn't like to say if they were proudly boasting or inadvertently admitting their guilt. I myself had absolutely no interest in CDs at all until old back catalogues started to become available, especially those long-wished for albums which had been deleted years before I got a chance to buy them. And it got even better in the mid-to-late 90s when some packaging became less clunky, documentation improved and remastering became the norm (admittedly some were badly done, but hey...). I decommissioned my turntable well over 15 years ago and as I have virtually all of my fave old albums on CD I don't miss vinyl one little bit - in fact, I've managed to flog a fair amount of my old LPs off to an ex-colleague.

I hope this isn't going to start the vinyl vs. CD thing all over again we've only just had that---in fact it may be still going on for all I know.
When CDs first came out it seemed that claims were being made that they were indestructable and people would leave them lying around on the floor out of their cases and on kitchen tables,usw.
They are in fact prone to problem just as much as LPs unless looked after including a strange rust virus!
I remember a new CD that kept jumping until I evenyually found a hair that had floated onto the surface.
The great problems that I find are of course the dreadful jewel case, trying to get the ,sometimes fat, book of notes back and into the lugs and reading the spines while on my hands and knees searching with my lousy eyesight.

Originally Posted by elgars ghost

What amused me about the early days was when yuppie types used to gab their gums about forking out 500 quid for a CD player just so they could play the latest Dire Straits, Eurythmics and Phil Collins discs which cost about £15 each - mind you, with that kind of Bistro-friendly repertoire I wouldn't like to say if they were proudly boasting or inadvertently admitting their guilt.

Ha, hilarious, my first CD player, in 1985, was precisely 500 quid - but it mainly played Verdi in those days...

1985? Luxury! I didn't buy my first til around 1993 and yes, I first played Phil Collins on it, and it cost the absolute bargain price of 11.99! I plead poverty - while my wife and I were raising our toddlers (1988-1995ish) we didn't buy much music at all.

I just have to go and check my first CDs if memory serves me right Anna Sophie Mutter, BPO Karajan Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
were among the first?? @ $35 approx not even ddd

My first discs in 1986 were Strauss's Alpensinfonie (Karajan) and Leonard Slatkin's version of Mahler 2nd. I think they cost $15.99 US (x2 for the Mahler) and the player was probably $199.

Originally Posted by moody

I hope this isn't going to start the vinyl vs. CD thing all over again we've only just had that---in fact it may be still going on for all I know.
When CDs first came out it seemed that claims were being made that they were indestructable and people would leave them lying around on the floor out of their cases and on kitchen tables,usw.
They are in fact prone to problem just as much as LPs unless looked after including a strange rust virus!
I remember a new CD that kept jumping until I evenyually found a hair that had floated onto the surface.
The great problems that I find are of course the dreadful jewel case, trying to get the ,sometimes fat, book of notes back and into the lugs and reading the spines while on my hands and knees searching with my lousy eyesight.

Hello Moody.

1/ If it's the same thread I'm thinking of I have to admit that I thought that debate was great fun apart from the technical data comparisons which went over my head somewhat. I wasn't trying to instigate any kind of argument with my post on this (or any other) occasion - I was just trying to explain that my doubts about the medium in the early days and my failure to take it seriously resulted in a definitive u-turn once it became apparent that CDs were becoming the best (and, incidentally, most economical) way for me to plug quite a number of glaring gaps in my collection - something I could never hope to achieve with vinyl or - God forbid - cassette tapes.

2/ Ah, yes - the indestructibility myth . I think an episode of Tomorrow's World mentioned something about CDs still playing even if you smeared them with jam. Complete hogwash, of course. And yes, they can just as fallible as vinyl as regards dust, fingerprints etc. plus the lens on the player needs care and attention sometimes. I have a Mahler recording on the UK label which has 'bronzed' over the years - I was worried that this was a result of deterioration but thankfully it still plays without any problems (didn't the Nimbus label have a problem with something along those lines?).

2/ Totally agree with you re the plastic jewel cases/thick booklet problem AND the fact that the vital bits of the case are too fragile, such as the hub 'petals' (why couldn't the hub be solid in the first place with just a little 'give' so the disc could be easily removed while still housing it safely?) and the part of the spine that contains the lugs always seems eager to snap off or crack. I especially detest the old-style twin cases that housed two or more discs - talk about dead space.

3/ Yes, good point again - some are hard to read. Quite a few of my CDs are at 'ground level' but I'm glad that my obsessive habit of storing everything in strict alphabetical/category order eliminates a lot of the guesswork - even if grovelling on the floor in semi-darkness ends up with me getting backache.