The Rise of the Competition

The Rise of the Competition

The first Compact Disc ever pressed was the band ABBA’s The Visitors album. It was on August 17, 1982 at a factory in Germany that the competitor of vinyl records was to  be manufactured and  later push the vinyl industry to its demise. The newly invented CD would  first go on sale in Japan later that year and  enter the world market by the next.

The CDs, upon their release cost about $17 which is equivalent to $40 in today’s monetary value and the CD players were priced at $1,000. Despite its expensive price, music lovers at the time surged into the CD market because of the promised advantage in terms of sound quality.

It lacked the usual surface noise that listeners were used to hearing from recorded vinyl records, often as a result of accumulated scratches or dust.

Digital CD’s universal compatibility with any CD players on the market also contributed to their appeal.

The vinyl record business had been on life support for years with tapes first. and then CDs, making them even more obsolete and clumsy to deal with. Big corporations bought up all the independent labels and small operations. The music business was big business and corporations took over an industry that was run by music people. Many were people who cared about and loved music more than profit.

Between 1997 and 2000 Napster caused the erosion and near collapse of the record industry. Why buy music when you can steal it for free from the internet? Add to that, the first iPod from Apple in 2001 and the future of music was set.