The CD Turns 30

The CD, at 30, is Feeling Its Age.  (NPR, 10/1/2012)

Excerpt:    "When 78s went out and LPs took over," says Brooks, "the record companies were able to resell stuff they'd sold before. When CDs replaced LPs and things in the 1990s, go back to the catalog and sell it again. So it's a cash cow for them that way."

In their greed, the record companies went to the well one too many times.

And what am I listening to right now?  Life Size by Soulstance on Spotify.

You can listen to it right here, if you'd like

The CD is 30 Years Old -- Long Live the CD.  (SFWeekly, 10/1/2012)

The first commercially available compact disc.

Billie [sic] Joel's 52nd Street.  (Mixing up his pop-culture landmarks.)

The CD Player Turns 30.  (TechHive 10/1/2012)

Excerpt:   Sony’s player, which retailed for about $674 at 1982 exchange rates (that’s roughly $1609 in 2012 dollars), launched alongside a group of 50 classical and pop CDs published by CBS Records. Names like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Schubert shared the bill with more modern artists such as Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, and Journey. Each disc cost $14 or $15.25 apiece (about $33 to $36 in 2012 dollars), with the classical discs on the high end. 

Critics expected the then-expensive medium to be relegated to audiophiles and the wealthy, but the compact disc’s creators watched as the CD fulfilled its original purpose: To supplant the long-playing record as the home audio medium of choice—an achievement it attained a mere five years later.