Compact disc
digital optical disc data storage format
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and is capable of holding uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. By 2007, over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide.
Standard CDs have a diameter of 120 mm (4.7 in) and typically hold up to 74 minutes of audio or approximately 650 MiB (681,574,400 bytes) of data. This was later regularly extended to 80 minutes or 700 MiB (734,003,200 bytes) by reducing the spacing between data tracks, with some discs unofficially reaching up to 99 minutes or 870 MiB (912,261,120 bytes) which falls outside established specifications. Smaller variants, such as the Mini CD, range from 60 to 80 mm (2.4 to 3.1 in) in diameter and have been used for CD singles or distributing device drivers and software.
The CD gained widespread popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1991, it had surpassed the phonograph record and the cassette tape in sales in the United States, becoming the dominant physical audio format.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Compact disc” as digital optical disc data storage format. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as digital optical disc data storage format. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q34467. The Library of Congress control number is sh86000125. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 2007 and 1991.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Compact disc” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.