The rise, fall and afterlife of the CD

[Gary]

The Rise, Fall and Afterlife of the CD, As Seen Through Billboard’s Archives
A compact history of the format.


By Joe Lynch
www.billboard.com/business/tech/cd-compact-disc-history-1235050182/

03/28/2022

History of the CD
lllustration by Barbara Gibson, Amanda Edwards/GI, Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/GI, Chris Hoffmann/picture alliance/GI, SSPL/GI, Ron Galella/GI, Roger Kisby/Bloomberg/GI
Old formats never die — they just spin around again. Compact disc sales first outpaced vinyl in 1987, but the CD has been slipping for almost 20 years, eclipsed by downloads and then streaming. But hold on to those CD towers: In 2021, new releases from Adele, BTS and Taylor Swift drove disc sales up 1.1% in the first annual increase since 2004, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data. Could a future “CD Store Day” spark an eventual comeback?

CD Sales Are Up for the First Time in 17 Years — Thanks to Adele, BTS & Taylor Swift
03/28/2022

Laser-Focused – On Money
“According to insiders, Sony’s launch of its Compact Disc digital audio disk system within the next year will be unparalleled in consumer electronics history in terms of ad and promo mega bucks,” reported the Feb. 13, 1982, Billboard. Big bucks weren’t just for the ad campaigns, though. Early CD players cost around $750, or about $2,100 in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation — about the cost of 17 years of Spotify.

My Digital Romance
More affordable models were introduced the following year, and the Oct. 1, 1983, issue reported that Sony would launch a $470 player “aimed at the ‘man-in-the-street’ audio fans rather than the up-market hi fi buffs.” The Oct. 22 Billboard detailed Sony’s “A Date With Digital” push to target younger consumers. Among the enticements: “an index search feature designed to help the user locate a specific subcoded portion of a long classical movement.” Swoon!

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s Gustav Holst
Early adopters don’t always have the hippest taste. The Oct. 29, 1983, Billboard cited a 137-store survey that found classical music accounted for 74% of CD sales, followed by pop at 21%. PolyGram revealed that its “hottest titles” were the soundtracks to Chariots of Fire and Fame, plus a recording of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. “We know who will be buying the player,” a PolyGram executive said in the June 19, 1982, issue, “and they’re not people who will be buying punk.”

The Longbox Goodbye
It took years to standardize CD packaging. In the March 7, 1992, issue, Billboard reported that the six major-label groups had finally settled on CD-size packaging, a move that “seals the coffin of the infamous 6-by-12-inch cardboard longbox.” Not everyone took a shine to the jewel case, however. “It’s outrageous. The longbox is a good anti-theft package,” said one record store owner. “Also, I am going to have to get new fixtures.” Tower Records’ Russ Solomon was equally angry. “We’re dealing with people called ‘suits,’ ” he said in the March 28, 1992, issue, “and suits don’t speak the same language we do.”

Sales Freeze
For the last two decades, Billboard has tracked the format’s decline. “CD sales are falling precipitously and digital sales continue to accelerate,” according to the Dec. 22, 2007, issue. On Dec. 20, 2008, Billboard reported that most retailers had “plans to reduce CD floor space in the new year.” One California record store owner fought cooling sales with ice-cold treats: “I can make a 50% margin on ice cream, while on CDs I can lose two bucks.”

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Honestly not surprised that early CD sales were heavily skewed towards classical. The promise of CDs was that you would have a clean, well mixed sound that didn't degrade over time the way LPs and cassettes do. Who cared most about mixing and audio quality? Classical fans. Throw onto that the price point for CD players and there really was no incentive for young pop fans to make the switch.

[Jeff]

In 2000, I finally got my first CD: Ace of Base's Greatest Hits.

Now, I have over 250 CDs.

But...I haven't bought any CDs since 2018!

[boscy]

CDs could have been saved if only the content creators and gear makers adopted each incremental improvement.

These things should have been adopted as soon as they were developed. These technologies could have made CDs sound much better and the information on CD-Text would have made them easier to store onto music servers.

Sony developed CD-Text, but inexplicably did not add that feature to all their CD players, car CD players, portable CD players, nor DVD players.

Sony and Philips Electronics and intended SACD to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format, but inexplicably did not make their all their CD players, car CD players, portable CD players, nor DVD players, be able to play SACD discs. Only a few expensive SACD players were sold when SACD discs were first released. SACD players and discs are still very expensive today. Brands such as PS Audio, McIntosh, Esoteric, Accuphase, for example, make outstanding CD/SACD players which play recordings to their fullest potentials, but their products are outrageously expensive and unobtainable to most people.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Definition_Compatible_Digital

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-Text

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Resolution_Compact_Disc

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bit_Mapping

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Stream_Digital

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD

[Au$tin]

I highly doubt any of that would have made a difference against digital sales and streaming. Convenience of access and price were the main factors in the decline of CD sales as the new digital formats arose, not the lack of features/sound quality.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Yeah, I’d say it was inevitable but the drop in CD sales could have been a bit more gradual than it was. Ultimately I think the biggest thing labels could have done is embrace digital sooner than they did with mp3s and such. Today vinyl has become a collector’s hobby. I wonder if CD could eventually regain that same appeal somehow.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

There is a market for cassette collecting, eventually there will be nostalgia for CDs and people will start collecting them too. If we get to a point where they just flat out stop making CDs for 99% of new releases, there will still be the Taylor Swifts of the world releasing 50 different physical editions in every format conceivable.

[Ling-Ling]

You'd think that CDs weren't selling anything the way the press covers them. Last year was the first year that vinyl sold more than CDs in the US since the 80's and they barely did (and worldwide, CDs sold more). On top of that, CDs saw an increase in sales last year, the first time since the 2000s. Physical product overall is in the gutter and the music industry is pushing vinyl so hard because of the price point and they can make more revenue on them. But CDs definitely have a niche, devoted fanbase, they're just not as vocal as vinyl lovers and they don't have the marketing muscle or hip factor behind them.

[jenglisbe]

Apr 6, 2022 6:56:44 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

There is a market for cassette collecting, eventually there will be nostalgia for CDs and people will start collecting them too. If we get to a point where they just flat out stop making CDs for 99% of new releases, there will still be the Taylor Swifts of the world releasing 50 different physical editions in every format conceivable.

Vinyl has an advantage over CDs in that there is a perceived difference in audio quality but also the cool factor.
Cassettes have an advantage over CDs in size; a walkman or something is just easier to carry around. Is there a true revival of cassettes, though?
CDs have the advantage of being able to easily skip songs, so maybe a revival of sorts will happen, but people need a way to play them, too.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

I see vinyl as something for music collectors who have an appreciation for having the physical product, but also for the cool factor as was mentioned. I’m sure a good many vinyl collectors also listen to their collection at times, so they might be more willing to put time into enjoying music, go to shows, etc.

Cassette collectors I’d say are more about the novelty of them. I’d be curious as to if there are any sort of profiles on the average person who has started buying cassettes again.

CDs I would say are mostly people who just haven’t moved on, or who choose to keep listening to music on CD and/or just find it convenient if they have car CD players or whatever.

I don’t know if I could see a cassette market growing to the extend vinyl has, but I think there’d be some room for CDs to grow a bit. Vinyl seems to be where the buzz for owning physical product will be for a while.

[upsidedown]

Apr 6, 2022 9:39:53 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Apr 6, 2022 6:56:44 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

There is a market for cassette collecting, eventually there will be nostalgia for CDs and people will start collecting them too. If we get to a point where they just flat out stop making CDs for 99% of new releases, there will still be the Taylor Swifts of the world releasing 50 different physical editions in every format conceivable.

Vinyl has an advantage over CDs in that there is a perceived difference in audio quality but also the cool factor.
Cassettes have an advantage over CDs in size; a walkman or something is just easier to carry around. Is there a true revival of cassettes, though?
CDs have the advantage of being able to easily skip songs, so maybe a revival of sorts will happen, but people need a way to play them, too.

THIS. This is the biggest issue to me. When I see CD sales still so high (relatively speaking), I'm like, are that many people still driving older cars or have boomboxes? Virtually every technology in the last 5-10 years has dropped CD capability - desktops, laptops, cars, etc. I loved collecting CDs, but I now have nowhere to listen to them unless I buy a separate CD boombox for my apartment.

[Ginger Spice]

I love my car CD player. I'll miss it when I finally get a new car.

I'll always champion the CD as the best physical format. You can just hold so much more content and for less. Compare a $50 CD boxset vs. a $200 vinyl boxset, the vinyl contains a quarter of the content that the CD one does. They're more reliable than vinyl too, and easier to handle. Cassettes are absolute garbage and the only appeal is nostalgia. I understand why most people wouldn't need or want a physical copy of something in this day and age, but it's still an important part of the experience for me, and I use both my car and home stereo pretty regularly.

[kcdawg13]

I got a cheap car around 2017-2018 and it was an older one that didn't have an aux but it did have a CD player, I remember being so sick of the radio that I went out and actually bought many CD's. I remember buying Taylor Swift's reputation and Bruno Mars' 24K Magic, I eventually got a newer car that actually had bluetooth so I didn't need CD's anymore but it was really interesting still using them during the streaming era.

It's not exactly relevant to the topic, I just thought I'd throw it out there.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Apr 6, 2022 10:59:35 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

Cassette collectors I’d say are more about the novelty of them. I’d be curious as to if there are any sort of profiles on the average person who has started buying cassettes again.
...

I don’t know if I could see a cassette market growing to the extend vinyl has, but I think there’d be some room for CDs to grow a bit. Vinyl seems to be where the buzz for owning physical product will be for a while.

Yeah, that's where most of the cassette revival has come from, collectors buying re-issues and short runs of new releases. But that's kind of how vinyl started off too. If there seems to be a market for selling cassettes, the industry will jump at it, the question being if it's profitable for them to do so.

[jenglisbe]

Apr 7, 2022 11:50:02 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Apr 6, 2022 10:59:35 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

Cassette collectors I’d say are more about the novelty of them. I’d be curious as to if there are any sort of profiles on the average person who has started buying cassettes again.
...

I don’t know if I could see a cassette market growing to the extend vinyl has, but I think there’d be some room for CDs to grow a bit. Vinyl seems to be where the buzz for owning physical product will be for a while.

Yeah, that's where most of the cassette revival has come from, collectors buying re-issues and short runs of new releases. But that's kind of how vinyl started off too. If there seems to be a market for selling cassettes, the industry will jump at it, the question being if it's profitable for them to do so.

Yeah I don't know the manufacturing costs of cassettes, but stans of an artist will buy just about anything (particularly if there is bonus content like a new song or live version). To that end, if an artist has enough stans, I am sure their purchasing can outweigh the manufacturing costs to ensure a profit.

[Mirago]

Apr 6, 2022 9:05:41 GMT -5 Ling-Ling said:

Last year was the first year that vinyl sold more than CDs in the US since the 80's and they barely did (and worldwide, CDs sold more). On top of that, CDs saw an increase in sales last year, the first time since the 2000s. Physical product overall is in the gutter and the music industry is pushing vinyl so hard because of the price point and they can make more revenue on them. 

I thought the surge in vinyl sales last year was a fluke due to lockdown life or two huge albums (Taylor and Adele) being released in ‘21, but maybe not. Speaking of pushing vinyl hard I was impressed to see Jack White asking the major labels (Warner, Universal, SONY) to help out with the current worldwide shortages by building their own vinyl-pressing plants. He claims small punk bands can’t get their records made for 8-10 months. Do you think the labels will bite or is it too risky? I assume they would want to keep up with the current explosion of sales by delivering faster product - after all the fans have been waiting 4 months for Dawn FM on vinyl. The latest Sheeran, Coldplay and ABBA vinyls also had delays.

[Deleted]

Sadly, the CD player in my car doesn't work. I would buy CDs much more often if it still worked. Nowadays, I only buy CDs if it's a favorite artist of mine or if I really like the album. Some albums I'd rather listen to on CD than vinyl, or vice versa.

[someguy]

I still buy CDs fairly regularly. I definitely prefer to own a physical copy of the music I want, and the CD format works the best for me.

[jenglisbe]

Apr 9, 2022 23:41:43 GMT -5 someguy said:

I still buy CDs fairly regularly. I definitely prefer to own a physical copy of the music I want, and the CD format works the best for me.

I definitely miss the CD booklets; lyrics, artwork, production and other credits.

[boscy]

Today there are only two companies that make high quality cassette players which are sold at music instrument stores and pro-audio stores.

Tascam.com/us/product/202mkvii/top

Tascam.com/us/product/cd-a580/top

Teac-usa.com/cassete-deck-cd-players/w-1200-dual-cassette-deck

Marantzpro.com/products/view/pmd-300cp

[thirddegree50123]

I miss CDs but I don't think I've bought one since 2007 lol