The head of Philips' CD-Lab, Joop Sinjou, with the first CD

The head of Philips’ CD-Lab, Joop Sinjou, with the first CD, pressed, Aug 17, 1982.

Last week my Dad asked me to make a copy of a CD for a friend of his. This happens quite often as he and his friends get recordings of music that is not commercially available directly from Switzerland. Burning CDs for my Dad is something I really enjoy.

Compact Discs

While I was making my Dad a copy of the CD I got to thinking about how many CDs I’ve made and just how cool it is to be able to make your own CDs. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent creating my own greatest hits and mixed playlist and burning them to CDs.

I’ll always remember the first CDs that I burned… actually, I still have them.

Back in about 2000 I’d heard that burning your own CDs was possible. I’d called around to a couple places to see if they could rip/burn the music for me as I didn’t know anyone that had a burner. Nobody knew much about it, but they also figured it was a copyright issue so they wouldn’t help anyway.

On a whim I contacted UW Madison and in their Biotechnology Lab they had a burner. They charged $40 an hour to use their setup and the blank CDs were $5 each. No doubt it was expensive, but I was in. I wanted to creat a 2 disc set of Metallica’s greatest hits.

Chris Daggett and I sat at the Sports Pub with a list of every song in the Metallica catalog. It took us a couple of hours to figure out which songs we wanted, how to divide them up to best fit on the CDs and then of course the appropriate order of the songs. Planning stage over and now on to the ripping and burning.

The burner was a single speed (74 minutes of burning time for each CD). I spent about 6 hours in the lab that day, but it was worth it. Honestly, the coolest thing I’ve ever done with a computer.

Winamp Music Player logo

Winamp Music Player logo

MP3s

I will say that the development of the MP3 and similar digital music file formats and what it has meant to my music collection is a very close second to the CD.

I remember seeing guys using something call Winamp in the DoIT showroom and I was blown away. Remember, “Winamp kicks the llama’s ass!” The guys that worked in the showroom had a ton of music just sitting in a folder. They were picking songs and jamming away. The ability to store hundreds, actually thousands, of songs on your hard drive was crazy.

I remember buying and iPod, filling it up with music and just sitting in a state of disbelief. Coming to terms with the amount of music and the ease at which I could play it was nothing short of amazing.

Apple changed the music industry with the rollout of the iTunes Music Store. Apple did not invent the MP3. They didn’t invent the digital music player (iPod), but they did make legal, digital music sales a reality.

From a consumer’s perspective the digital music revolution is awesome. Being able to buy your music ala carte is something most of us dreamed about. Who hasn’t bought an album for “that one song” hoping that some of the other song are good… they weren’t.

From an artist’s perspective digital music gets mixed reviews. The ability for smaller bands to get their music in the hands of music lovers is unparalleled. On the flip-side, established and larger bands are finding the revenue generated by digital sales to considerably smaller. They’re earning their money on live events and sales of merchandise.

Final Thoughts

Anyway, when my Dad asked me to copy a CD for a friend it always puts a smile on my face. It makes me feel good to be able to give him back his original CD and a copy that I know is as good as the original. It is not only a bit for bit copy, but it also looks good. It has a complete listing of the songs and some artwork. It has a polished, professional look and is as close to the original as possible.

This attention to detail, even the small details, is a direct reflection on my Dad. Doing it right means something to me and obviously it means something to him. I have to tip my cap to him and say thank you for sharing that quality with me.