Compact Disc

The Compact Disc (CD) is a digital optical disc storage format co-developed by Philips Electronics NV (Netherlands) and Sony Corporation (Japan) in 1980. It was introduced commercially in 1982 and has been produced by various manufacturers worldwide. The CD is used for storing and playing digital audio recordings and has been adapted for data storage purposes as CD-ROM and its derivatives. The format has been widely adopted and is produced by numerous companies globally, making it a product with multiple manufacturers and no single ultimate owner.