I don’t know about you but I spent yesterday polishing my favorite CD’s in honor of the thirtieth birthday of the Compact Disc format. Although the first CD wasn’t released until 1982 (Billy Joel’s 52nd Street), the CD format was officially announced on March 8th, 1979.

The basic specifications for CD’s, which were layed out in Philips/Sony’s “Red Book” state that:

• 1. Maximum playing time is 74 minutes (including pauses)
• 2. Minimum duration for a track is 2 seconds
• 3. Maximum number of tracks is 99
• 4. Maximum number of index points (subdivisions of a track) is 99 with no maximum time limit
• 5. International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) should be included

Also, the standard specifically forbade the use of copy protection in CD’s, which was either an ommission or an early revelation that DRM hurts consumers and in turn hurts sales, a lesson that Apple is only learning now. Lest we try to double this birthday annoucement as a sort of obituary, a music industry study recently found that two-thirds of music listeners still buy only CD’s. So blow out those candles, CD Baby, Music Industry studies wouldn’t lie to you, right?