The Compact Disc: From $2,000 Players to a Decade-Long Takeover

A new format must climb two hills: technology and price. The compact disc climbed both, but the second took longer than most people remember.

• The compact disc was introduced by Sony and Philips in 1982; the two companies formed an alliance in 1979 ^[1].
• Players debuted in Europe and Japan in autumn 1982, with U.S. sales beginning in 1983 ^[1].
• The first CD players cost over $2,000, but two years later they could be bought for under $350 ^[1].
• It took a decade for the CD to replace the cassette as the most popular medium for pre-recorded music ^[1].

Two companies, one disc

The Engineering and Technology History Wiki records that the compact disc was introduced by the Sony and Philips companies in 1982. In 1979 the two had formed an alliance to produce an audio disc using much of the same technology ^[1]. Shared standards meant a disc pressed anywhere would play anywhere, an advantage over a format war.

Launch and price

The player debuted in Europe and Japan in autumn 1982, with U.S. sales beginning in 1983 ^[1]. The first CD players cost over $2,000. Just two years later, it was possible to buy one for under $350 ^[1]. That is a price drop of more than 80 percent, as simple division shows: $350 is about 17 percent of $2,000.

A slow replacement

The source notes it took a decade for the CD to replace the cassette as the most popular medium for pre-recorded music ^[1]. Recordable CDs were not generally available until the late 1990s ^[1]. In other words, a technology can be better on day one and still take years to win.

How a disc is made, and what the price curve says

ETHW describes the manufacturing chain. The finished digital recording includes the music plus tracking codes, cueing data and sometimes even video, and is fed to a master recorder in which a laser burns a spiral of tiny pits into a polished-glass master disc; the pits and the areas between them, called lands, represent the 1s and 0s ^[1]. The glass is electroplated to form a metal mold and then again to form multiple metal stampers, which press plastic copies that get a thin aluminum layer for reflectivity and a clear plastic cover ^[1]. The article notes that the later stages are surprisingly like making a phonograph record ^[1].

The price figures give a simple measure. Players that cost over $2,000 in 1983 could be bought for under $350 two years later, a fall of at least 82.5 percent (my arithmetic: 1 minus 350/2,000) ^[1]. Success depended on other innovations, such as very inexpensive lasers and microprocessors, and recordable CDs were not generally available until the late 1990s ^[1].

What the disc stores

The CD stores audio as 16-bit samples taken 44,100 times a second, the format discussed in our explanation of the sampling theorem. The 1,411.2 kbps data rate that results is also the baseline for comparing formats.

• Alliance: 1979.
• Launch: 1982 in Europe and Japan, 1983 in the U.S.
• Takeover time: about a decade.

The ETHW source does not give disc dimensions or playing time, so none are stated here.

Questions readers ask

When was the compact disc introduced?

In 1982 by Sony and Philips, with U.S. sales starting in 1983 ^[1].

How much did the first CD players cost?

Over $2,000, falling to under $350 within two years, according to the Engineering and Technology History Wiki ^[1].