CD

A Compact Disc (CD) is a digital optical disc storage format used to store and play music.

A Compact Disc (CD) is a physical optical storage medium that became the dominant format for commercial music distribution from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s. CDs store digital audio encoded in a lossless format and can hold up to 74–80 minutes of audio at 44.1 kHz / 16-bit quality — a specification that became the industry standard for audio fidelity. At their peak, CDs were the primary revenue driver for the global recorded music industry.

While streaming has displaced CDs as the primary consumption format, physical CD sales still generate meaningful revenue in certain markets and demographics. Japan remains a notable exception to the streaming-dominant global trend, with CD sales representing a large share of that market's recorded music revenue. In the West, CD sales have declined sharply but persist in niche markets including classical music, jazz, and merchandise bundles sold at live shows.

For independent artists, CDs can function as a physical product and promotional tool rather than a mass-market sales channel. Limited-edition CD releases, particularly when bundled with merchandise or exclusive content, appeal to dedicated fans and collectors and can be sold at live shows and through direct-to-fan e-commerce with higher margins than DSP streaming.

From a metadata and rights perspective, each track on a CD requires an ISRC, and the CD release itself requires a UPC barcode that identifies the specific commercial configuration. If an artist releases both a standard and a deluxe version of the same album on CD, each version needs its own UPC.

While melabel's core focus is digital distribution and the streaming ecosystem, the platform's release management tools and metadata workflows apply equally to physical releases, supporting artists who operate across both physical and digital formats.