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Whose Invention Was the Compact Disc?
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Quick Answer
The compact disc was jointly developed by Philips and Sony, with the first commercial CDs released in Japan in 1982.
The Full Story
Philips and Sony began working together on digital audio discs in 1979 and agreed on a common 'Red Book' standard in 1980. The first CD players and discs went on sale in Japan in October 1982, and Billy Joel's 52nd Street was among the first albums released on the format. A standard CD is 12 centimetres across and originally held up to 74 minutes of audio. A popular story says this length was chosen so a CD could hold Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums to sell a million copies on CD.
Key Facts
1.A CD's data is read by a laser, so the disc is not physically worn by playing.
2.The CD-ROM extended the format to computer data in the mid-1980s.
3.CD sales peaked around 2000.
YouTube Angle
Suggested video title for this topic:
"Did Beethoven decide how long a CD should be?"