REVOLUTION CALLING

The editor of What Hi-Fi magazine charts the rise and fall and rise of the CD.

- Alastair Stevenson

The compact disc was the go-to format for most music fans for decades. Launched in 1982, it rose to dominance in 1988 when it overtook vinyl sales for the first time.

From there, CD was king for over a decade, continuing its dominance near undisputed until 2002, when we first saw streaming services start to nip at its lead. Even then, it took many more years for streaming to claim the top spot, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reporting that Spotify and co. didn't dethrone CDs as music's top seller until 2014.

Looking back, a key reason for CD's growth came in 1985 when Dire Straits released their album Brothers In Arms. It was the first CD to break one million sales, and a key album that opened listeners up to the benefits of CDs.

At a technical level, CD was the first mass-market audio format to capture a whole album's worth of music without the need for A and B sides. On average, a CD can take 74 minutes worth of music, while one side of a vinyl record can store only around 20 minutes' worth. CD players were also much easier to use, making them more alluring for general music fans.

There was also the advantage over vinyl records' delicate nature, and having to make sure to get things including tracking force and RPM right. If you didn't, you risked getting poor quality reproduction, jumpy playback, or even potentially damaging your LP. With a CD you just plonk the disc in your player and press 'Play'.