The Compact Disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by the Dutch company Philips and the Japanese corporation Sony. While the underlying technology for optical discs dates back to the late 1950s and 1960s with inventors like David Paul Gregg and James T. Russell, it was the joint collaboration between Philips and Sony in 1979 that led to the standardized "Red Book" format released to the public in 1982.

Initially, manufacturing was highly centralized, with the world's first commercial CD pressed at a Philips/PolyGram plant in Langenhagen, Germany. However, as the format became a global standard, production expanded to a vast network of manufacturing facilities worldwide, including major plants in Japan, the United States, and across Europe. Today, while the CD format itself is a standard rather than a single branded product, it is manufactured by numerous third-party media production companies and electronics giants such as Sony and various specialized replication services.