When CDs were first developed, it was known they could hold 80 minutes of music, but the problem was because the disc spins so fast stabilizing the laser beam was initially very difficult. Once the technology improved that’s when you started seeing longer discs.
The Sony guy said he wanted to hear Beethoven’s 9th on on CD, which makes sense, but performances vary from 65 minutes to 79 minutes depending on tempo. As a result it’s led to the mythology that CDs can hold no more than 74 minutes which is not true, and wasn’t true at the time.
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