March 2nd, 1983: A Historic Milestone in Music Industry with the Launch of CD Players and 16 Albums on CD
On March 2nd 1983, the first CD players were released in America along with 16 albums on CD. Sony, Philips, and Polygram launched this new digital audio format, a five-inch compact disc or “CD” containing up to one hour of music.
CD’s were a huge upgrade in sound quality from dreaded tape-hiss of cassettes and to some, a downgrade in quality in reference to Vinyl. CD’s took america by storm by 1985 onwards to become the preferred medium of choice. CD sales overtook vinyl in 1988 and cassettes in 1991 only to be vanquished from sight when the digital music piracy boom took hold in the early 2000’s
