While 2012 does mark the 30th anniversary of the CD, I recently discovered some new information that forced me to rethink the commonly accepted scenario above. Last year, I created a presentation of the benefits and problems of social media with regards to music. For this project, I borrowed a copy of Steve Knopper’s poignant book, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age (2009). Why do I mention this book? Because it features new information about the CD: specifically, who created it first and when. The more I read it, the more shocke I became… but, in a good way.
It turns out that there was one other person involved with creating the CD: James T. Russel. In fact, he created it as early as 1965!!! That’s almost two decades before its supposed “creation.” I automatically thought of that scene in TRON: Legacy where Kevin Flynn tells his son, Sam, that he came up with Wi-Fi in the 1980s… only to have his ideas stolen by someone else. Like Kevein Flynn, Russel didn’t receive much credit or recognition for his ground-breaking work until now. Why? Because he ran out of patent money in the 1970s and had no choice but to sell his idea to Phillips.
So, as you can see, the compact disc is actually older than one might think (47, not 30). Granted, there is more to this true story that I probably left out. If any of you in the blogoshpere are wondering where Appetite for Self-Destruction talks about Russesl and his plight, it is in the first chapter. The book in itself is an amazing read. I highly recommend it.