nyl’s advocates claimed possible was prohibitively ex-
pensive. Moreover, the average listener lacked the
aural training to detect the imperfections inherent
to digital recording, whereas the flaws inherent to
records were much easier to notice. CDs, mean-
while, were not impervious, but they were less sus-
ceptible to damage than were records, which was all
that mattered to a consumer choosing between the
two media.
CDs Gain Popularity As CDs became more popular
and more titles were issued in CD format, discs be-
gan to take up more shelf space in music stores. Of
necessity, the amount of space available for records
and audiocassettes decreased. By the end of the
1980’s, references to the “death of vinyl” had be-
come common, with smaller stores phasing out vinyl
altogether. For a time, cassettes, which had sur-
passed vinyl in sales before the rise of CDs, became
the highest-selling prerecorded music medium. Un-
like vinyl, however, the cassette yielded noticeably in-
ferior sound, a deficiency that, when coupled with
the cassette’s fragility and short lifespan, made it
ripe for displacement as well.
It became clear that CDs were preferred over vinyl
by the majority of consumers and that the new me-
dium was not destined to be a passing fad. Many own-
ers of large record collections began to sell their vinyl
albums to used-record stores and to replace them
with new digital editions. Record companies, mean-
while, capitalized on this trend in various ways. They
released digitized analog recordings of albums right
away, then released digitally remastered versions of
the same album a few years later, often with “bonus”
material or previously unreleased tracks. Thus, fans
often purchased multiple versions of the same album.
The companies also exploited the size of the new
format: Realizing that large amounts of music could
be condensed into a relatively small space, they
began to release comprehensive boxed sets of multi-
ple CDs. Such compilations rejuvenated interest in
older artists (Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, David
Bowie) and cemented the popularity of more youth-
ful ones. Bruce Springsteen’s three-disc boxLive/
1975-85spent seven weeks at the top ofBillboard’s al-
bum chart, despite its relatively high price. This
trend would gather momentum in the 1990’s, even-
tually leading to the availability of exhaustive boxed
sets of practically every major performer in every
conceivable genre.
Impact The increased storage capacity and argu-
ably superior audio reproduction of compact discs
inspired musicians of every genre to explore the pos-
sibilities unique to the digital age, while the discs’
durability, portability, and relative affordability made
music more accessible and user-friendly than ever
before. In later decades, the rise of digital audio
technology would be as important to producers as to
consumers, as the low cost of creating recordings
with personal computers and distributing them on
CDs would transform the nature of the recording in-
dustry.Further Reading
Baert, Luc, Luc Theunissen, and Guido Vergult, eds.
Digital Audio and Compact Disc Technology. Bur-
lington, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.
Detailed technical introduction to the principles
of digital audio technology from the Sony Service
Center in Europe.
Coleman, Mark.Playback. Cambridge, Mass.: Da
Capo, 2005. Ambitious attempt not only to trace
the history of recorded music from Thomas Edi-
son’s cylinders to Internet-friendly MP3 files but
also to do so by explaining the influence of re-
corded music on society and vice versa.
Evens, Aden.Sound Ideas: Music, Machines, and Expe-
rience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2005.
A scholarly and technical examination of the ar-
tistic implications of the compact disc’s replace-
ment of vinyl as the predominant medium of
both making and experiencing recorded music.
Gronow, Pekka, and Ilpo Suanio.International His-
tor y of the Recording Industr y. Translated by Christo-
pher Moseley. New York: Continuum Interna-
tional, 1999. Traces the development of the
recording industry, focusing on its key innova-
tions and its most influential artists and record
companies.
Maes, Jan, and Marc Vercammen, eds.Digital Audio
Technology: A Guide to CD, MiniDisc, SACD, DVD(A),
MP3, and DAT. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Sci-
ence and Technology, 2001. A technical and his-
torical examination of the state of digital audio
technology written by two of Sony Europe’s tech-
nical-support experts.
Arsenio OrtezaSee also Classical music; Computers; Consumer-
ism; Music; Science and technology.The Eighties in America Compact discs (CDs) 237