Release/Format

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This field describes which medium a release is distributed on. Normally a release will be distributed on multiple media with different catalog numbers and barcodes; each should be a separate release.

The values may be:

Name Date of creation Rarity* Details
Compact Disc 1982 Widespread PCM, Available in 120mm and 80mm formats.
Copy Control CD 2001 Common? Copy Control CDs went out of favor by the end of 2006
Data CD
DTS CD 1992 Very Rare a.k.a. 5.1 Music Disc — DTS Audio
Enhanced CD 1995 Common? Rare? a.k.a E-CD, CD-Extra, CD-Plus & CD+ -- combines music and data tracks
HDCD 1995 Rare? High Definition Compatible Digital. Enhanced sound recording compatible with the standard Audio CD. In 2000 there were over 4000 releases available, in 2008 there were about 4000 releases. [1]
Mixed Mode CD
CD-R 1995 Common? Record-able CD
8cm CD 1987
Blu-spec CD 2008 Common PCM
Minimax CD
SHM-CD 2007 Common (English) (Super High Material CD) PCM. The first re-issues on SHM-CD were released 21 November 2007
HQCD 2008
CD+G 1985 Rare Audio CD with Graphics, usually used for karaoke
8cm CD+G
Vinyl 1948/1957/1971 Common Vinyl / Quad Vinyl. A simple evolution of gramophone record: Analog, with pre-emphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA). Lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion. Monaural were created in 1948, then stereo vinyl came later in 1957 and Quad in 1971: analog, with pre-emphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical.
7" Vinyl Common 17 cm
10" Vinyl 25 cm
12" Vinyl Common 30 cm
Flexi-disc 1962 Common? Phonosheet, Sonosheet, Soundsheet
7" Flexi-disc Common? 17 cm
Digital Media Widespread All born-digital releases, in any file format
Cassette 1963 Common? Analog, with bias, preemphasis, 1/8 inch wide tape, 17/8 inches/sec. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction.
Microcassette 1969 Rare Analog, 1/8 inch wide tape, mostly mono, some stereo. 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s.
DVD
DVD-Audio 1999 Rare? Common? DVD-Audio products were delayed until mid 2000
DVD-Video 1996 Widespread First available in Japan by November, on March 1997 in US and later established in Europe by 1998
SACD 1999 Rare Super Audio CD. Intended as successor to CD; generally regarded as a failure except by audiophiles.
Hybrid SACD Rare SACD which also contains audio playable in normal CD players
Hybrid SACD (CD layer)
Hybrid SACD (SACD layer)
SHM-SACD 2010 Rare SACD manufactured using the SHM manufacturing process. First CDs were released 23 June 2010
DualDisc 2003 Common? An audio cd on one side (though not redbook), and a dvd on the other side
DualDisc (CD side)
DualDisc (DVD-Video side)
DualDisc (DVD-Audio side)
MiniDisc 1991 Common ATRAC
Blu-ray 2006 Common
Blu-ray-R
HD-DVD 2005 Rare? Abandoned by 2008. Last known release(s) were in 2010 although in HD-DVD-R format
VCD 1993 Rare Video CD. Digital format, precursor to DVD
SVCD 2000 Rare? Common? Super Video CD. Chinese-developed alternative to DVD-Video; intended as successor to VCD; didn't succeed.
CDV 1987 Rare CD Video. Mixed analog/digital video/audio format; began to disappear by 1991
UMD 2004 Rare Universal Media Disk. a proprietary format used only by the PlayStation Portable; some movies were released on it
Shellac 1921 Common? Phonogram record made with shellac instead of vinyl
7" Shellac 17 cm
10" Shellac 25 cm
12" Shellac 30 cm
Acetate Rare? Phonogram record made with acetate instead of vinyl
7" Acetate 17 cm
10" Acetate 25 cm
12" Acetate 30 cm
SD card ? ?
slotMusic 2008 Common? A type of microSD memory card developed by SanDisk preloaded with music in DRM-free MP3 format and other content. The current selection of songs comes from EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.
Other Rare Use for formats not otherwise listed
Betamax 1975 Common? 'Dolby Stereo' cinema surround sound.
Cartridge 1962 Rare? 4 track (in 1962) / 8 track (in 1965) / Quad 8 track (in 1970) -- Analog, 1/4 inch wide tape, 3 3/4 inches/sec, endless loop cartridge. Quad: 4 Channel Stereo.
HiPac 1971 Successor of PlayTape. Introduced August 1971 in Japan only. Discontinued 1973.
PlayTape 1966
CED 1981 Very Rare Capacitance Electronic Disc
DAT 1987 Rare
DCC 1992 Very Rare Digital Compact Cassette
DVDplus 1999 Rare
DVDplus (CD side)
DVDplus (DVD-Video side)
DVDplus (DVD-Audio side)
Edison Diamond Disc 1912 Rare
Floppy Disk 1971 Rare?
3.5" Floppy Disk 1981 double-sided, high-density (HD) "1.44 MB" disks became available 1986
5.25" Floppy Disk 1976
Zip Disk 1994 Fell out of favor during the early 2000s
LaserDisc 1978 Rare?
8" LaserDisc
12" LaserDisc
Music Card Common? Card with a digital download code printed on it
Pathé disc 1905 Rare
Piano roll 1883 Very Rare Mechanical digital
Playbutton 2011 Rare? Badge with a pin for attaching to clothes officially launched February 2011. Has buttons to control playback (no shuffle though), volume and choosing from 7 preset equalizers. A headphone jack is used for listening and charging the lithium-ion battery. Music is stored in WAV or Ogg Vorbis format on 256MB flash memory disallowing modification or transferring to other media.
Reel-to-reel 1930s Rare Analog; magnetization; "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity
Tefifon 1936 Rare Primarily used in Germany in the 1950s. Marketed for a very short time by Western Electric in the US under the name "Westrex". Production discontinued in 1965.
USB Flash Drive 2004 Common? 2004 was earliest use as a music format
VHD 1983 Rare
VHS 197X Common
VinylDisc 2007 Rare? It is made from two fused layers; the silver layer contains the digital information (either in CD or DVD format) and the upper layer has a record groove, meaning it can be played on any record-player.
Wax Cylinder 1877 Very Rare Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion

(*) Rarity is just a rough indication of availability as consumer products - values are: "Very Rare", "Rare", "Common" and "Widespread".

Other items from the list I'm not sure how to fit in

Name Date of creation Rarity Details Map to
Wire recording 1898 Rare Analog; magnetization; no "bias" Other
4 tracks/8 tracks/multitracks recording ? Very Rare? This is not in itself a physical format (may be performed on a variety of equipments, from tape based equipment to digital equipment and hard disks). Likely to be only available in studios, as professional equipments. Other
Elcaset 1976 Rare A short lived cassette format. Cassette
Gramophone record 1895 Common Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion. The terms LP record (LP, 33, or 33-1/3 rpm record), EP, 16-2/3 rpm record (16), 45 rpm record (45), and 78 rpm record (78) refers to specific types of gramophone records Vinyl

Partial list of digital audio formats

More information