Compact Disc Digital Audio
Standard digital audio format defined by the Red Book.
Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs, defined in the Red Book technical specifications. It utilizes pulse-code modulation with a 44,100 Hz sampling frequency and 16-bit resolution, originally specified to store up to 74 minutes of stereo audio per disc. The format gained worldwide acceptance in 1983–84, selling more than a million CD players in its first two years, and eventually overtook records and cassette tapes to become the dominant standard for commercial music.
- format_name
- Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA)
- also_known_as
- Audio CD, Redbook audio
- introduced
- 1980 (Red Book standard published); first commercial player released October 1982 in Japan
- key_contributors
- Philips and Sony (joint task force)
- sampling_rate
- 44,100 Hz
- bit_depth
- 16-bit
- original_max_play_time
- 74 minutes stereo audio
Lore & Background
The compact disc evolved from LaserDisc technology, using a focused laser beam to read information from a reflective layer. Prototypes were developed independently by Philips and Sony in the late 1970s. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc, meeting every two months alternating between Eindhoven and Tokyo. The group adopted Sony's error correction system, CIRC, and Kees Schouhamer Immink developed the eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM) recording code, which increased playing time by more than 30% compared to the Philips prototype. EFM and CIRC are the only standard essential patents of the compact disc.
Reader's Guide
The Compact Disc Digital Audio format revolutionized music distribution, peaking around the year 2000 before contracting due to digital downloading and streaming. Despite this, it has remained a primary distribution method for the music industry. In the United States, phonograph record revenues surpassed the CD in 2020 for the first time since the 1980s, but in Japan it remains the premier music format, and in Germany it outsold other physical formats at least fourfold in 2022. The format also influenced video game music, used in mixed mode CD-ROMs and popularized during the 1990s on hardware such as PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and personal computers with 16-bit sound cards. The success of the compact disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, which agreed upon and developed compatible hardware, allowing consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company.
Did You Know?
- The first commercially available audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released in October 1982 in Japan.
- The Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980 after a year of experimentation and discussion by a joint Sony-Philips task force.
- The first test pressing was of Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony, recorded December 1–3, 1980, played by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
- By 1988, CD sales in the United States surpassed those of vinyl LPs, and by 1992 they surpassed those of prerecorded music-cassette tapes.
More in Dutch inventions 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record