These days marked the anniversary of an event of technical-historical dimensions: 40 years ago, the Polygram pressing plant in Langenhagen near Hanover started the first series production of the compact disc.
Big names helped: ABBA had their last album "The Visitors" pressed on the new sound carrier, Dire Straits entered the digital era with "Brothers in Arms".
In 1983 more than 1000 different music titles were available.
In 1988, the CD replaced the vinyl record as the leading sound carrier, and in the same year worldwide production figures reached 100 million copies.
But how digital was the product idea actually?
The medium, which was modern at the time, basically revealed a lot of analogue thinking.
Because only in pre-digital times could one come up with the idea of developing a data carrier for just one purpose.
Physical format and limited application were still inextricably linked, as was the case with the telephone, which was not suitable for anything other than telephony.
The connection between bits, disk and sound only gradually dissolved when the 12-centimetre disk was followed by variants for other media and data purposes.
CD-ROM, CD-I, Video-CD, DVD and finally the Blu-Ray Disc expanded the application horizon.
In the meantime, media and information have long spread disembodied.
So the record is basically obsolete.
And as an early transition vehicle from the analogue to the digital world, it is a case for the museum.