Compact Discs

Launched by Philips and Sony in 1982, the Compact Disc became a success very quickly, mainly due to the fact that the music industry had ceased  the production of vinyl LPs and singles almost overnight to make place to the new format. The public had no choice, even if many music purists preferred the old vinyl format which had a richer, smoother, more rounded sound.

The quality is superb, mainly with Super Audio CD with multiple channels. Modern titles are usually produced completely on a digital chain, from the recording studio, through post-production to the final burning stage.

As a bonus, some titles come with a DVD included in the package.
(like the "Emeli Sande Live" CD left.

Some come as a single disc with CD audio on one side and DVD video on the other side, like the Dual Disc of "Jane Monheit's Season".
This brilliant idea did not catch on unfortunately. Maybe the production of dual discs is too complex, maybe the public got confused, or both. In any case, the dual disc concept remains a test case and never reached mass production.

Whatever the presentation, CDs are totally compatible on all machines, in all "regions" of the world.
CD players are numerous and come in all shapes and sizes and prices. We had first the stand alone unit to fit in a high-fidelity chain, giving the best sound that money could buy. Progressively, all sound equipment started to include a CD player too, sometimes with several trays. We even have portable versions for joggers, although those did not take off well, limited as they are by the size of the 12cm disc.


Their price is affordable, even if they are more expensive in the UK, as usual..
There is no good reason to justify the price mark-up in the UK; the only logical explanation being that the higher prices simply make higher profit margins.

One great added bonus,CDs can be easily ripped into files that can be played on any computer or with the many MP3 players available nowadays. The software to operate this conversion is already on your PC, like Windows Media Player, iTunes or can be acquired free, like  Winamp and many others.

Obviously the 12x12cm of the box does not offer the same surface for graphics as the old 30cm vinyl LP. Even though you sometimes need a magnifying glass to read the text on the cover of the leaflet, at least there is some artwork and information about the music and the artists.

The best proof is that iTunes and iPod touch use a searching system called "cover flow" on their screens that looks like a collection of discs, with album art and all, and windows and the rest try to follow the trend.

And CDs are not bad in a well organized library either. Less impressive than LPs maybe, but you can store more tracks in the same space.

So why abandon such a successful product?

Nobody knows really. Mp3s or other compression formats will replace CDs and all future music will be streaming from on-line stores.

In fact, the infamous MP3 suffers from a much lower quality than CDs, whatever they might say.

The only logical explanation could be that the music industry hopes to be able to sell MP3 downloads on line for more or less the same price as the CDs, whilst making substantial savings on production, packaging, shipping and distribution.

For the same price, or a bit less, the consumer gets an inferior product which costs less to manufacture, and for the privilege, the users gets to deal with the hassle of the administration work themselves to get the tracks, pay for them, keep their accounts live, etc. and to deal with the joys of DRM, the dreaded Digital Right Management. Let us not even go there! 

No fidelity

Strange attitude indeed in the music world. Up until the CD, people would strive to improve the quality of their audio set-up as much as possible, by building a high-fidelity chain with the best components. And the real quality of discs and equipment kept improving more and more.
But when digital came on the scene, hi-fi chains started to disappear, replaced by mini units with presets like pop, jazz, normal,etc. Not the same thing at all, is it?

And with the advent of all things digital and MP3, the idea of audio quality plummeted to such a low level that you cannot even talk bout "fidelity". Does nobody listen to good music any more? Is everything reduced to the lowest common level because it is portable and digital?