In the spirit of all the folks revisiting vinyl over at the CHIRP record fair, we thought it would be an opportune time to bring up some forgotten or little known facts about another means of music: the compact disc. We all still use them when we’re feeling nostalgic or our favorite indie bands haven’t hit iTunes just yet, but just what do we KNOW about CDs? Well, here’s a few fun facts we’ve gathered:
1) The first mass-produced CD manufactured was ABBA’s The Visitors. However, the first album to actually be released to the public on CD was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street. It came out on October 1, 1982.
2) Before settling on compact disc names like MiniRack, MiniDisc, and CompactRack were tossed around the table. Fortunately the concept of a CD was thought to evoke a reminder of the compact cassette’s success.
3) The CD was intended to be just 11.5 centimeters in diameter, but when Philips teamed up with Sony to release the CD and CD player, Sony was adamant that a compact disc had to have enough space to hold Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (about 74 minutes). In order to do so, the size of the disc had to be increased to 12 centimeters in diameter instead.
4) If you could take all of the data a CD holds and place it end-to-end, it would stretch out for more than four miles
5) The first-ever CD player was Sony’s CDP-101, a sleek, streamlined device 
for the low, low price of just $900.
