...are here to stay writes Lorne Murdoch in the first of a series of articles claiming to provide a comprehensive overview of all potentially collectable CDs released up to the tail end of 1986.
With considerable prescience his opening paragraph states: What began as another in a long line of record industry innovations is now threatening to become the most popular means of buying and selling music by the end of this decade.
The first article goes on to summarise how CDs quickly adopted many popular ideas from vinyl record reissue labels of the 80s, most crucially the marketing tactic of including bonus tracks on CD releases that were never available on original LPs.
The Guide claims to include every known release available on CD but not on vinyl, every limited edition and every release containing bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.
The second article from December 1986 drops this interesting nugget about CD promos.
At present, there don't appear to be such things as 'CD promos': some companies do issue 12" singles to publicise their new CDs!
The record industry knew that music journalists had yet to adopt to the new technology despite CD players having been available for over three years.
The third article reveals growing alarm for the future of vinyl records.
As months go by, more and more evidence is surfacing in the States that CD releases are beginning to take over from black vinyl albums and singles.
All four articles minus the comprehensive lists are here. These were the early days before the 'jewel case is the original 'smooth side' not frosted?' conversations began.