THE COMPACT DISC: 25 YEARS OLD

On August 17th 2007 the compact disc (CD) marked its 25th anniversary. It was on August 17th 1982 that the first set of CDs rolled off the assembly line in Germany.

The CD which was initially developed by Philips and Sony radically changed the secondary storage technology and made the storage of large quantity of information in a small space at a low cost possible. The CD also revolutionized the music industry providing the perfect format for music distribution.

For most of the 25 years the CD has dominated the content storage scene. However, in recent years CD has faced stiff competition from the iPod and the DVD. The Compact Disc seems to be losing in the music, movies, data and video games distribution market. However, the CD seems to be the number one choice in the software distribution market.

As CD marks its 25th anniversary the big question is will it survive the next 25 years? The answer is a resounding yes. If the magnetic disk is still waxing stronger there is no reason to think that the Compact Disc age is coming to an end soon.