In the innocent days of the early 90s the future of personal computing still seemed to be wide open. To many, the internet and especially the World Wide Web didn’t seem to be of any major significance yet. The the Hot New Thing in the world of PCs was multimedia. CD-ROM was introductroduced in 1985, and became cheap enough for many in the early 90s. In 1994, multimedia discs—from encyclopedias to magazines—flooded the market, before they World Wide Web took over. Philips and Sony created a recordable CD called the CD-R in 1991. The CD-ROM was then followed with DVD and Blue ray disks.
How The CD-ROM Lost The Multimedia Dream To The Internet
https://hackaday.com/2024/06/24/how-the-cd-rom-lost-the-multimedia-dream-to-the-internet/
The short, happy reign of CD-ROM
https://www.fastcompany.com/91128052/history-of-cd-roms-encarta-myst
In 1994, multimedia discs—from encyclopedias to magazines—flooded the market, and felt like the future. It was fun while it lasted. In terms of pure mindshare, 1994 might have been the year of Peak CD, with 17.5 million CD-ROM drives and $590 million in discs sold, according to research firms Dataquest and Link Resources.
Videos:
How does a CD work? (AKIO TV)
How a CD ROM Works Animation
DVD+R and DVD-R; What was that about?
CD-R
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R
The end of an era has been reached now…
The general trend shows a decrease in demand for optical discs. Optical disk drives (ODD) have long ceased to be an important component of desktop computers and laptops, and users are increasingly choosing external hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, flash drives, network storage (NAS) and cloud services for data backup.
Sony Shuts Down Production Of Recordable CD-R, DVD-R And BD-R Discs
https://menafn.com/1108395600/Sony-Shuts-Down-Production-Of-Recordable-CD-R-DVD-R-And-BD-R-Discs?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3Janr8AiEsv4b5nFC_axFAaa50FLyWCI20t0GxNb_AIrWXHNvhY8-N4GU_aem_WWApsB78cwXeu9rbkPB8Tw
Sony has announced the reduction of 250 jobs at its optical disc manufacturing plant in Tagaze, Japan, as part of an initiative to completely phase out the production of recordable optical media. All because of the decrease in demand for these products – consumers prefer other media, Azernews reports. Sony will gradually cease production of media on optical discs, including Blu-ray discs, at its plant in northeastern Japan.
2 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Did Early CD-ROM Drives Rely On Awkward Plastic Caddies?
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/18/why-did-early-cd-rom-drives-rely-on-awkward-plastic-caddies/
These days, very few of us use optical media on the regular. If we do, it’s generally with a slot-loading console or car stereo, or an old-school tray-loader in a desktop or laptop. This has been the dominant way of using consumer optical media for some time.
Step back to the early CD-ROM era, though, and things were a little kookier. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drives hit the market that required the use of a bulky plastic caddy to load discs. The question is—why did we apparently need caddies then, and why don’t we use them any longer?
Notably, the first audio CD player—the Sony CDP-101—was a simple tray-loading machine. Phillips’ first effort, the CD100, was a top-loader. Neither used a caddy. Nor did the first CD-ROM drives—the Phillips CM100 was not dissimilar from the CD100, and tray loaders were readily available too, like the Amdek Laserdrive-1.
So where did caddies come from? The concept had existed prior to CDs, most notably for the failed Capacitance Electronic Disc format created by RCA. Those discs were highly susceptible to problems with dust, so they were kept in caddies for their protection. For CDs, the caddy wasn’t a necessity—the plastic optical discs were robust enough to be handled directly. And yet, in the late 1980s, caddy CD-ROM drives started to become the norm in the nascent market, with Apple and Sony perhaps the most notable early adopters
As robust as CDs were, it was at times desirable to protect such an investment with the added safety and security of a caddy. This was particularly useful in library, school, and business contexts, too, where end users couldn’t always be relied upon to use the discs gently.
Caddies also offered another side benefit of particular use to the radio industry. They made it very quick and easy to change discs, easing the work of on-air DJs as they cued up songs.
Caddies made sense at a time when the CDs and their content were incredibly expensive. They also made sense for professional media and corporate users. However, for the consumer, they quickly became a frustration rather than a boon.
By the late 1990s, caddy-based CD drives had mostly disappeared from the consumer market in favor of more convenient, caddy-free drives. Customers wanted easy-to-use drives, and they had no desire to put up with fussy plastic cases that were ultimately unnecessary. Tray-loaders became the norm for most CD-ROM applications, with slot loaders becoming more popular as a fancier option in some premium hardware.
Caddies did persist, but in more niche contexts. Standards like Mini Disc and UMD relied on integral, non-removable caddies, because Sony could never quite let go of the idea. Similarly, some early DVD-RAM drives relied on caddies too, as have various high-capacity optical archive standards. In these applications, caddies were chosen for two reasons—they were there to protect media that was either particularly delicate, valuable, or both. In the vast majority of cases, the caddy became an integral part of the media—rather than an external cart which discs could be swapped into and out of.
Caddy-based CD drives represent a transitional period in the early days of optical media
Tomi Engdahl says:
Physical Media Is Dead, Long Live Physical Media
https://hackaday.com/2025/01/09/physical-media-is-dead-long-live-physical-media/
Much has been written about the demise of physical media. Long considered the measure of technological progress in audiovisual and computing fields, the 2000s saw this metric seemingly rendered obsolete by the rise of online audiovisual and software distribution services. This has brought us to a period in time where the very idea of buying a new music album, a movie or a piece of software in a physical, or even online, retail store has become largely impossible amidst the rise of digital-only media.
Even so, not all is well in this digital-only paradise, as the problems with having no physical copy of the item which you purportedly purchased are becoming increasingly more evident. From increases in monthly service costs, to items being removed or altered without your consent, as well as concerns over privacy and an inability to resell or lend an album or game to a buddy, there are many reasons why having the performance or software on a piece of off-line, physical media is once again increasing in appeal.
Even if the demise of physical data storage was mostly a trick to extract monthly payments from one’s customer base, what are the chances of this process truly reverting, and to what kind of physical media formats exactly?
The End Of Ownership
The concept of having audiovisual performances on physical media which you can play at will within the confines of your own abode is relatively new, first brought to the masses by inventions such as the phonograph, starting with wax cylinders, followed by shellac and vinyl records. This brought everything from concerts to stage performances to the home, where the proud owner of this piece of physical media could play it back on its corresponding playback device. This set the trend that would persist until the dominance of CDs.
Digital Media Is Terrible
There are many reasons to mourn the death of physical media, with some pertinent ones laid out for DVDs and Blu-rays in this AV Club article by Cindy White:
Permanence: you purchase the copy and as long as you take good care of it, it’s yours to do with as you please.
Better quality: owing to the video compression of digital streaming services, you’ll get a worse audiovisual experience.
Portability: you can take the physical media with you, lend it to a friend, or even sell it.
Better for artists: the system of residuals with DVD/BD sales was much more fair to artists.
Extras: DVD and BD releases would come with extra content, like soundtracks, behind the scenes, interviews, and much more.
Some are beginning to feel uneasy in the face of this dawning realization that before long all our movies, series, books, games and software will be locked behind what are essentially leasing services on our (ad-sponsored) smart TVs, smart phones, smart books and smart computers/consoles in increasingly barren rooms.
It’s The Business Model
As alluded to already, digital media-as-a-service will not go away, as it has too many advantages. Especially in terms of low distribution costs, as the logistics of physical media can get rather convoluted. Where the real business case for physical media may be is in the added value. This is something which is observed with a platform like Bandcamp, which is an online music distribution platform via which artists can sell their music and merchandise, including CDs or vinyl records.
All of which points to that the physical formats of the future will likely remain CDs, Blu-rays and even vinyl records and cassette tapes as the most popular formats. Meanwhile for video games on PCs at least there are stores like Good Old Games, who recently launched their Preservation Program that seeks to keep older titles playable on modern systems. This in addition to allowing customers to download the installer for any game they purchase and put it on any kind of physical media which they desire, courtesy of their lack of DRM.
The Rise, Fall, and (Slight) Rise of DVDs. A Statistical Analysis
The death and second life of physical media.
https://www.statsignificant.com/p/the-rise-fall-and-slight-rise-of