Who released the first commercial CD??????.......

why is the 'ABBA/Visitors' catalog # 800-011-2? if it's the first prototype, wouldn't it be 800-001-2? what were 001-010?

 

The earliest CD in my collection is Japanese release of 'D.Scarlatti: 14 Sonatas for Harpsicord' recorded by Huguette Dreyfus on Denon (this is a 1978 PCM recording which still sounds amazingly good BTW). The release date printed on the disk is 1984.2. MSRP as stated on the back cover was 3,800 yen. 14 sonatas are in 9 tracks (10 of 14 compositions are paired into 5 indexed tracks).

 

I've wondered the same thing. I am not aware of a discs with catalog numbers 800 001-2 or 800 010-2.

 

I have a Denon CD from the "PCM Digital Recording" series that has "(P) 1982.10" printed on the inlay card. The CD itself has "(P) 1982" printed on the label.

The price is 3,800 Yen.

Catalogue number on spine:

38C37-7004 (just listed as C37-7004 on the top right corner of the booklet and on the disc itself).

The CD is full of index points and the back of the booklet listes the "TRK T." (track time) and the "A.T." (absolute time) for each track/index. It is all very compicated and in fact does not match the way the disc is indexed!!

It is clearly a very early CD - the matrix numbers are minimal and are of the "dot matrix" variety. Also the areas of the disc not containing data are mirrored like Keith's Abba disc.

What does the date on the inlay card infer - the date the CD was released or the date the recording was published?

I bought this disc used back in 1989/90 as even then it stood out as a very early pressing - the earliest pressing I had ever seen. 15 years later I am yet to see a disc that appears older.....

Anyone know anything about this one?

 

Well I do know that I saw what was reputed to be one of the first cds being played on the first cd player Oct 23, 1982 at the AES show in Anaheim. I can't imagine there were cd's prior to this as there would seem to be nothing to play them on.

 

The Visitors wasn't a prototype. It was commercially released and remained in print until 1997. I have my doubts about whether the catalogue numbers used by Polygram at this stage were chronological because 800 012-2 is Abba's Greatest Hits Volume 2, which came out in 1984.

As for 800 001-2 to 800 010-2, I don't know what they were. It seems the catalogue numbers began at 800 011-2 for some reason.

Ken