Compact Disc turns 30, MP3 doesn't bother to send a gift

We're not quite sure how much related celebrating went on this past weekend, but the iconic Compact Disc managed to hit the big three-oh. The IEEE was credited with presenting its prestigious IEEE Milestone Award to Royal Philips Electronics for its contribution to the development of the CD, and as the story goes, the award coincides with the 30th anniversary of the "historic demonstration of the first CD prototype codenamed 'Pinkeltje' on March 8th, 1979." While many would argue that the CD is on its way out in favor of smaller, highly portable MP3 files, the disc has definitely left a lasting mark on the industry. To date, over 3.5 billion audio CD players have been sold alongside 240 billion discs. Oh, and not to be a Debbie Downer or anything, but what are the chances that we won't be throwing an "over the hill" party for this here format?

[Thanks, Sylva]

[Templarian @ Mar 9th 2009 7:58AM]

Such a great day, I remember back in 1993 or something getting a computer with a CD drive thinking it was the most awesome thing in the world, oh those were the days.

[BenJI @ Mar 9th 2009 8:09AM]

Lets throw a huge party for this.......
.......Dont invite macbook air owners

[Jonathan @ Mar 9th 2009 8:27AM]

I remember when all the computers had 2x cd drives and I went crazy when NEC released the 3x and I had to have it. Caddies and all.

[Why should I have all the fun? @ Mar 9th 2009 9:53AM]

A CD party! Cool. I know where I can lay my hands on about 10,000 appropriately themed drink coasters.

[Dave @ Mar 9th 2009 4:20PM]

I believe 120 billion of these CDs were actually sent out over the years by AOL...who I consider a pioneer...in the world of SPAM.

[N3TWORK BURN3R @ Mar 9th 2009 5:46PM]

Hey Dave, i sooo agree with you on that one.

[Luggage @ Mar 9th 2009 6:12PM]

How about the gazillion 'free' compuserve cd's with just about any mag remotely related to anything using wires and electricity :')

[loosely_coupled @ Mar 9th 2009 8:14PM]

!!! I fondly remember my father bring home a new Gateway PC (must have been like a 486) with CD-ROM and Soundblaster16 speakers!...

BTW, speaking of old PC CD-ROM game memories, I bet I can blow some of your minds here.. Ready?

1) Under a Killing Moon / Tex Murphy
2) The 7th Guest
3) Phantasmagoria
4) Alone in the Dark
5) Rise of the Triad
...

[Vëon @ Mar 9th 2009 8:01AM]

CDs are so ancient photos were still black and white when they were introduced! I had no idea...

[anantha92 @ Mar 9th 2009 9:00AM]

nah, colour was already there. Its just that this guys camera had happen to be in black and white!

[KilgoreTrout @ Mar 9th 2009 9:45AM]

Don't be ridicolous dude.
I don't know how young you are , but I guarantee you that in the 70s color photos and films, and TVs were commonplace.
I remember perfectly when CD came out and nobody wanted them, they basically obliged people to adopt the standard by releasing new albums only in CD format.
Cd are very practical to hear in cars or on the move, but when I want to really enjoy my music , or to record a new mix CD, I still want my beloved vinyles.
Actually my last investment in electronics, a couple of months ago, has been a turntable with USB plug to put vinyle music on laptops and mobile phones without having to plug them to any desktop or NAS.
Sooner or later I'm quite sure I'll try to see how it works.

[Vëon @ Mar 9th 2009 11:04AM]

Apparently sarcasm hadn't been invented yet either.

[Why should I have all the fun? @ Mar 9th 2009 11:58AM]

It was a joke. Ridicolous? Ridiclueless is more like it.

[Level 5 @ Mar 9th 2009 8:02AM]

Yeah I remember my first 486 with a CD-ROM drive and a 170MB hard drive. I was like "Wow! 650MB, how could we EVER need that much space?"

My 2TB+ of disk in my home machine are laughing I'm sure ;)

[AL @ Mar 9th 2009 8:03AM]

I remember my first CD that I bought in 1987 - Icehouse's Man of Colours. I still have it, but now it's ripped to my iPod for my listening pleasure.

But I still like to buy CD's and keep them on the shelf to display my music collection of 20+ years - you really can't display an MP3 folder in Windows on your wall.

[Dking @ Mar 9th 2009 8:06AM]

I wasn't bron yet.. ;)

[Archdoom @ Mar 9th 2009 8:20AM]

And unless you've had a name change, you still aren't!

[MikeC @ Mar 9th 2009 10:40AM]

F**k you! Two of my friends died by not being bron yet :/

[superhobo @ Mar 9th 2009 8:07AM]

Happy Birthday.

I remember when the Playstation came out, it used OMG, THAZ SO AWSOME, CDS!!!!1

[Dale @ Mar 9th 2009 9:13AM]

You mean you didn't hear of the Sega CD aka MegaCD? That used CDs long before the PlayStation. :D

[superhobo @ Mar 9th 2009 9:16AM]

I did hear about it.

And I kept hearing about it.

Never saw anyone playing it :P

[Topionic @ Mar 9th 2009 8:08AM]

Didn't they have color photography in 1979?

[superhobo @ Mar 9th 2009 8:10AM]

Sepia is color!

[Kris @ Mar 9th 2009 8:16AM]

Yes. We even have color photos from 1916.

[Taylor @ Mar 9th 2009 8:26AM]

This might be from a newspaper source: even when they could take pictures in color, they'd take them in black and white to save money, because they weren't going to be printed in color, anyway.

[anantha92 @ Mar 9th 2009 9:09AM]

The first colour photograph was taken in 1861.

[Jon Acheson @ Mar 9th 2009 10:14AM]

I remember 1979, the lack of color is a blessing, I assure you.

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 9th 2009 8:16AM]

Too bad it will all end with the death of Blu-ray, very soon; thanks to online free, fast and efficient storage, high priced Blu-ray disks and drives, fast internet speeds for a faster and bigger file shares and of course much cheaper and smaller 32GB+ flash disks to fill the market soon.

[loosely_coupled @ Mar 13th 2009 10:09PM]

Not sure about Dubai (that's where you are, right?) , but if you look around the United States (where most of the content comes from), people are LUCKY if they have a 5mbit broadband connection. A huge portion of the country are stuck at 768K DSL, dialup, satellite, or slow fixed wireless.

Even compressed 1080P H264 downloaded movie files are not realistic at this point in time...

[Chemaz @ Mar 9th 2009 8:25AM]

For me, CDs wont die until you can download lossless music, until downloads become better quality that cd's i wont be switching, so until then long live cds!!!. As for blu-ray, i cant see the internet killing that for a very long time until the majority can download 1080p films in less then an hour or 2, which for the uk is a very long way off

[Jonathan @ Mar 9th 2009 8:49AM]

Then why'd you switch from Vinyl to CDs?

[Why should I have all the fun? @ Mar 9th 2009 9:48AM]

CDs still provide reliable principle security while providing a fixed return. They're not going anywhere.

[Carlton @ Mar 10th 2009 10:46AM]

You can't sell used mp3's when you don't like them anymore or are in a pinch and need some cash.

And, what about 10, 20, 30 years from now, when nothing plays mp3's and you transcode them, making them sound like hell? Still have these CDs and backed up FLAC, converting to whatever format as necessary (of course, with storage in the future, it'll probably not even be necessary to ever use a lossy codec for stereo music).

[BobTurbo @ Mar 9th 2009 8:30AM]

How can a data storage medium be on the way out to a music compression algorithm?

[chefgon_ign @ Mar 9th 2009 8:44AM]

Because music is the only thing they've been good for since DVDs replaced them for everything else years ago, and some 99% of people in the world couldn't care less if their music is compressed so nobody needs them for music anymore, either.

[acme @ Mar 9th 2009 11:09AM]

my windows xp iso thinks otherwise

[tbee @ Mar 9th 2009 8:48AM]

Maybe CD is not what it was anymore, but let's not forget that it is the father of the more current systems like BlueRay and what is to come. In essence the CD and BlueRay are identical, only the color of the laser differs.

[Daza @ Mar 9th 2009 8:55AM]

Exactly, all optical media is very closely related, with the wave lengths of lasers changing and the size of the pits getting smaller (I think). This is we have units which can play three decades worth of formats (CD, DVD, HD-DVD and BD).

I think people also forget that the MP3 compression algorithm was put together in the late 80s making it 20 years old now. Apparently psychoacoustic masked recordings have been happening since 1979, making it just as old as the CD.

Still - you can't compare the two.

[scape @ Mar 9th 2009 9:08AM]

and now I feel dated...

[Samboini @ Mar 9th 2009 4:35PM]

Who's your girlfriend?

[Bill @ Mar 9th 2009 9:27AM]

Screw vinyl, it's crap even on the best of systems. And, CD is generally great, even on low-end systems.

For my PMP needs I use 112Kbps HE-AAC (AAC+). And, most of time when I A/B compare them to the CD's, using a clean amp and high-end cans, I can just barely tell the difference between the two - a lot of times I can't tell at all.

Most so-called audiophiles seem to be wankers really. They buy expensive cables, that don't really do anything quality-wise to the sound - it's been proved a wire coat hanger provides identical quality - expensive CD players - the output is still digital, so it doesn't matter how expensive the player is long as the output's correct - and way overpriced amps and speakers just for bragging rights mostly. Yeah, a good amp and speakers are essential. However, they needn't cost >= $5,000 a piece. I can buy great flat response, extremely low distortion amps and speakers for around $500 a piece.

[JJ @ Mar 9th 2009 11:20AM]

Because you don't hear the difference all audiophiles are wankers for listing to higher quality music? Some logic!

[Martin @ Mar 9th 2009 11:51AM]

They're at the very least elitist, if not wankers. :P

[John P @ Mar 9th 2009 9:29AM]

If I buy entire albums, I buy vinyl now. So much better than CD or mp3. Also you can get some really sick albums for almost nothing. It's a no brainer, really.

[Special_K @ Mar 9th 2009 9:44AM]

I'll never forgive CDs for killing off wax cylinders. Luckily, some of my favourite artists are still releasing onto the format: Relevant Elephant, Rayon Mammoth, Bunker Sorbet... The fidelity of that lo-fi, crappy analogue sound is just amazing!

[Kyle Brandes @ Mar 9th 2009 9:52AM]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[jpasschier @ Mar 9th 2009 10:32AM]

You can see some photos of the first Philips prototype (the Pinkeltje) here:
http://www.marantzphilips.nl/Philips_Pinkeltje_prototype_cdplayer_march_1979_joop_sinjou/

The pinkeltje on those photos belongs to the guy on the photo (Mr. Joop Sinjou). :)

[ajoan0077 @ Mar 9th 2009 1:11PM]

i like the way it look...its look futuristic but still had that vinyl thing to it.

haha look at the player. i like the sliding search thing

[tekdroid @ Mar 9th 2009 8:44PM]

awesome

[Flobin @ Mar 9th 2009 10:40AM]

Maybe we should look for new uses of the CD, if we all agree its life as a storage medium is over.

Check out this concert building in Tilburg, the Netherlands: http://www.barz.nl/Pictures/barz.nl/Tilburg/013_001.jpg Those are actual CDs marking where the material for the façade is held down.