The DIDZ code was also used by Hong Kong CBS/Sony and Hong Kong WEA. The HK CBS/Sony CDs with the DIDZ codes were all made in Japan and I have 2 of them that were released in 1988. The below photo was taken from a current HK Yahoo Auction listing.... BTW, the asking price for the above CD is almost US$200.00!! However, an unusual DIDZ CD that I have is one from HK WEA. The title was released in 1985 and the disc has Made in France by MPO printed on it. In the center transparent ring, it was stamped with "Compact Disc MPO France 08". However, these's also a DIDZ code on the CD. Again, here's a photo from a current HK Yahoo Auction listing.... The DIDZ code appeared underneath the Compact Disc logo on the right side of the disc, while "Made in France by MPO" can be seen on the left side. Disclaimer: While I do own both of the above CD titles, the CDs pictured above are not mine. The photos are there merely to illustrate what I'm talking about.
DIDZ codes were used quite a bit. They are found on some Japan-for-U.S. A&M titles pressed by CBS/Sony, such as The Police Synchronicity and Ghost in the Machine and Supertramp Breakfast in America. Many early Telarc titles bear DIDZ numbers as well.
Question: How to find if early US cd was pressed in Japan? For European cds it is easy,but looks for American it is more complicated,or?
I think they're easy to identify, Japan for USA CD's stated made in USA in the rear inserts and the disc in itself has the legend Made in Japan, in my vague understanding some may have the original Japanese catalog on matrix area, 35DP, 32XD etc. There are many more with different matrix codes, as the DIDX. In some time the CD's become to be "Now Made In USA" and is stated in a white strip on the rear insert, those are second pressings if I am right.
I have couple american cds,on artwork written "Now in USA" & cd made in Japan,but on cd itslef no info about where it was made at all. Is this cds american cds oder?
These are CBS (CBS/Columbia/Epic) CDs made at the Sony DADC USA plant. Started in 1985. There is a history on it that I posted before.
DIDX codes are still used on non-Sony DADC pressings, just that they are later pressings by another plant, and often the artwork and or matrix are kept the same. BTW, CBS/Sony Japan plant or 'CSR' is also now known as Sony DADC Japan or Sony SDM (Sony Disc Mfg) Japan. All same place.
First CD plant ever was PolyGram (part of Philips and later PDO). It was also in West Germany. The second in 1984 was Sonopress, part of BMG. They made BMG/RCA's CDs along with a lot of EMI CDs (initially). Teldec (later Warner Music Mfg/Record Service - WEA Mfg USA's German sister plant and now owned by Cinram), Pilz, and P+O opened in 1985. The first pressing primarily for WEA, the other two for indie labels. Teldec (classical label originally a joint venture between Telefunken consumer electronics and German Decca) was acquired by WEA around then.
On nearly all early CBS/Sony U.S. CD's where no country of manufacture is printed on the aluminum portion of the CD, you'll find in the clear plastic hub where it says, 'Made In USA by DADC'.
Thanks friend, I did a quick search in my collection and I am a little bit confused, Polygram has many surbrands, and really don't know what were the very first, here's what I found, all they have some relationship with Polygram or unless is stated on rear inserts and in the booklet also, I have some USA pressings and I am assuming that they would be the same on WG catalog: 832 706-2 Mercury Best Of Aphrodite's Child Aphrodite's Child 838 430-2 Vertigo 666 Aprodite's Child 823 273-2 Polydor At Fillmore East The Allman Brothers Band 849 388-2 Polydor The Best Of Eric Burdon and The Animals 834 790-2 Mercury The Collection Barry White 800 092-2 Polydor Gone To Earth Barclay James Harvest 800 026-2 Polydor Berlin Barclay James Harvest 821 591-2 Polydor Eyes Of The Universe Barclay James Harvest 821 930-2 Polydor Octoberon Barclay James Harvest 821 941-2 Polydor XII Barclay James Harvest 825 895-2 Polydor The Compact Story of Barclay James Harvest 821 523-2 Polydor Live Tapes Barclay James Harvest 830 264-2 Mercury Slippery When Wet Bon Jovi 823 636-2 RSO Disraeli Gears Cream 827 578-2 Polydor Wheels Of Fire Cream 823 277-2 RSO Layla Derek and The Dominoes 823 777-2 Polydor Perfect Strangers Deep Purple 842 917-2 Vertigo Acquiring The Taste Gentle Giant 842 624-2 Vertigo Gentle Giant Gentle Giant 800 027-2 Polydor Short Stories Jon and Vangelis 813 174-2 Polydor Private Collection Jon and Vangelis 800 030-2 Polydor In The Court King Crimson 824 149-2 Casablanca Destroyer Kiss 811 842-2 Brain Dune Klaus Schulze 825 677-2 Polydor A Physical Presence Level 42 829 986-2 Polydor Vigilante Magnum 820 168-2 Deram In search Of Moody Blues 827 409-2 ECM Watercolors Pat Metheny In addition there are many other brands West Germany pressed that seemed to me as very early ones, as the Charisma, not included in the list above. If my intuition is right the first ones are the 800 0XX-2 under Polydor right? There's a 800 001-2?
800 011-2 (Abba's "The Visitors") is the lowest-numbered one I've ever heard of. The lowest-numbered ones I have in early pressings are 015 (Oxygene), 020 (Chariots of Fire, red face), 021 (Friends of Mr. Cairo) and 024 (Equinoxe).
The Visitors was the first commercial disc released by Phonogram. The first pressing was pressed in West Germany by Polygram and has black text and an orange paint coating.
The german AUDIO magazine used that disc to demo the Philips CD100 for their September 1982 issue. That must have been in August 1982 or earlier, i.e. 6 months before the compact disc was officially launched on the european market in March 1983. According to the article, the magazine received the player with only the ABBA disc and a custom-made demo CD with tracks from their own AUDIO test LP. The picture in the mag shows the 800 011-2 number.
I can't believe I had Michael Jackson's Bad on CD back in 1988 with the booklet and cover printed in Holland but the CD made in Japan stating on the outer ring "made in Japan by Sony/CBS". I lend it to a friend and never got it back. I remember it sounded quite good.
A Japan-based Ebay seller has put up a nice article on the first 50 CBS/Sony discs. Good reference; only problem is that he perpetuates the myth that the Billy Joel 52nd Street 35DP1 was the "first CD released", when it is clear from his article that it is one of the first 50 CD's. http://reviews.ebay.com/Collectable...first-50-CD-titles_W0QQugidZ10000000003984066
BTW,I sold to cryspnz1 cd from photo.It is red Polydor Abba visitors. It is rare,I never meet this cd again so far.
Thanks Claude, it seems that those full alluminium Polydor titles were the very first ones after the Japanese titles, I will continue compiling those catalog numbers.
Regarding the catalog numbers of Polygram and its affiliated labels, was there some kind of sequential system for its various labels?
If my collection is any indication, they seem to increment catalog numbers in series but distribute them among all the labels. For example, 884 052-1 is ABC: Be Near Me (12") on Mercury 884 053-1 is Casablanca Dance Classics (12") on Casablanca Assuming that's what you were getting at...
I wonder if Sony will have any marketing campaigns to celebrate the birth of the CD? Maybe not, as the press would likely pick them up to discuss the decline of the CD. It is sad -- from the perspective of the general public, 10/1/82 was really the birth of digital music; and it'll probably pass without a word.
Yes, that's exactly what I was getting at. Just wondering if there was some kind of order to the catalog numbers. Thanks.
