The CD is 30 Years Old Today

[Fat Freddy]

Saw this in today's paper, thought it was interesting... The Compact Disc is 30 years old today. The first commercially available CDs went on sale (in Germany, apparently) on this date in 1982.

 

A Look Back: Mass production, sale of CDs began in 1982

 

It's fast becoming a way of dating oneself to mentione that one remembers the use of CDs. But when the term "compact disc" was first used in the '70s to refer to prototypes developed by Philips and Sony, it had massive potential. By 1981's Sony's CD products were being displayed at industry shows.

On August 17, 1982, mass production of CDs began. The first commercial CD released was Billy Joel's "52nd Street." The format remained the dominant storage device until the turn of this century.

[zacharyamelie]

I hope you have the chance to one day say ''today is the 50th anniversary'', but I'm not thinking that's gonna happen.

 

I still remember seeing cd's in stores for the first time I think it was like in 1985 or 1986...I was ten or so, they were so pricey at first and the players were WAY too expensive. I stuck to my cassettes until 1992, so for me I'm celebrating my own 20th anniversary this year. My first 2 cd's were NIN's Pretty Hate Machine and Saigon Kick's The Lizard. I remember trading some of my cassettes for good money. Some tapes could fetch up to 3$ on trade, but most would get about 1$ to 1.50$. I traded something like 500 of my tapes and got about 50 cd's in return.

[Fat Freddy]

I still remember seeing cd's in stores for the first time I think it was like in 1985 or 1986...I was ten or so, they were so pricey at first and the players were WAY too expensive.

 

Yeah, the first time I saw a CD player displayed in a store was probably around '84... it was in the Sears at the mall. The player was one of those big huge boxy things (like the one in the photo above) and if memory serves the price was something outrageous like $600 or thereabouts. ...and of course, the only discs available at that time were by the proven mega-stars like Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Billy Joel, etc. My brother and I saw the price tag for the player and the paltry artist selection and said something to the effect of "Pffft, forget it, these things will never catch on."

[Doksdad]

I had the first cd player in my town. I told my mom that I would rather have a cd player vs. a class ring. Same price. Done deal!

[RichieZ]

The clear blister-packs and long-box packaging they came in back then were cool