What was the very first music CD ever made in the world and in the USA?

*** WORLDWIDE FIRST ALBUM (Germany):

There is a bit of controvery on whether it was ABBA's "The Visitors" or Billy Joel's "52nd Street". This is why:

As Time pointed out, 52nd Street wasn’t technically the first CD; the technology was originally tested on a pressing of Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, and the first batch of discs to be manufactured was a run of ABBA’s The Visitors, but it didn’t arrive in stores until later.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-first-compact-disc-released/

So ABBA, "The Visitors", Aug 17 1982 was the first PRODUCED.
But according to this article, 52nd Street was pressed later but was the first SOLD on the market.

The Visitors album was one of the first records ever to be recorded and mixed digitally, and was the first in history to be released on the new CD format in 1982 on Atlantic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Visitors_(ABBA_album)#cite_note-4

The first Compact Disc for commercial release rolled off the assembly line on August 17, 1982, at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, near Hanover, Germany. The first title released was ABBA's The Visitors" (1981).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc


*** UNITED STATES FIRST ALBUM:

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA in 1984

Born in the U.S.A. became the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release when CBS and Sony opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984.

*** WORLDWIDE, FIRST DEMO CD

BeeGees, Living Eyes, 1981

Living Eyes was chosen to be the first ever album to be manufactured on CD for demonstration purposes, as seen on the BBC TV program Tomorrow's World in 1981, and was featured on the inaugural issue of the Compact Disc trade magazine.[4] It was the first Bee Gees album to be released on CD, in early 1983 when compact discs were first commercially available, though few were manufactured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Eyes_(Bee_Gees_album)

I think it was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA was the first music CD released in America (1984).

The first commercial CD album was released in Japan, in October 1982. It was Billy Joel with '52nd Street'

In 1985 the first CD single was manufactured, Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms' was released for promotional purposes in Germany to commemorate the band's 1985 European tour.

I heard that the CD format was made the size it is so that it would be big enough to fit Beethoven's 9th Symphony on one CD.

The timing would be about right. "The Compact Disc reached the market in 1983, and this event is often seen as the 'Big Bang' of the digital audio revolution"

Herbert von Karajan made a recording with the Berlin Philharmonic which was released in 1982 on CD. I forget what pieces were on the recording.

Born in the U.S.A. was the first CD pressed in the United States for commercial release.

According to Wikipedia, the CD dates further back than 1984, the first music to be pressed on CD was Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD

First CD ever made was ABBA's "The Visitors" in 1982, pressed in Germany.

The first CD anything was in The Netherlands. Philips Corporation (with Sony, all CD players have Sony parts inside) is the producer of CD technology.

"In 1982, Philips launched the Compact Disc in partnership with Sony. The company receives a royalty on every DVD manufactured."
(DVD and CD are the same technology.)

as well as...
In 1963, Philips introduced the Compact Cassette.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips

I think Phanjon saw this article or one similar to it. It says the first music CD was "The Visitors" by ABBA, and that it was pressed in 1982 at a Philips plant in Langenhagen, Germany. Ownership of the plant was complicated: it belonged to the recording company Polygram, which was owned by Philips.

Worldwide: ABBA, "The Visitors", Aug 17 1982

"The first Compact Disc for commercial release rolled off the assembly line on August 17, 1982, at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, near Hanover, Germany. The first title released was ABBA's The Visitors" (1981).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

First mass produced in the U.S. was Springsteen's 1984 ~ Born in the USA

The first commercial music compact disc (CD) pressed in the U. S. was Bruce Springsteen'sOffsite Link Born in the USAOffsite Link, pressed at the opening of CBS Records CD production plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in September 1984.

http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3541

The BeeGees' "Living Eyes" was chosen to be the first album ever to be manufactured on CD for demonstration purposes, as seen on the BBC program "Tomorrow's World" in 1981 and was featured on the inaugural issue of the Compact Disc trade magazine.

The following was taken from Collectible Compact Disc Price Guide 2 by Gregory Cooper, published by Collector Books with a copyright date of 1998.

"On October 1, 1982, the first CD was finally introduced to the consumer market in Japan. Billy Joel's 52nd Street got the honors. CDs, however, were not introduced to the United States until March 1983 . . .
"In 1984 the first CD pressing plant, Digital Audio Disc Corporation (DADC) opened in the United States. The first two CDs to come off the line at DADC were a special promotional CD called the Edison CD Sampler and an appropriately titled disc Born In The USA by Bruce Springsteen.
"[The Edison CD Sampler] was manufactured at the Digital Audio Disc Corporation plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, and distributed at the plant's grand opening that September. The disc was given to attendees along with the 'red-disc' copy of Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA."

The reference to a "red disc" copy of Born In The USA is explained in this caption which accompanied a photo of the disc: "Springsteen, Bruce - Born In The USA (Columbia CK 38653) Because of the title, Springsteen's Born In The USA was appropriately the first disc to come off the manufacturing line (along with the Edison CD Sampler) at the first U.S. pressing plant Digital Audio Disc Corporation, just prior to its grand opening in 1984. This disc is unique from every other pressing because of the distinctive red printing on the disc. Termed the red disc, this disc was the only version given this treatment because at the time, the red ink used was very difficult to work with, and in fact, the discs used were being worked on up until the night before the plant's inauguration."
http://www.luckytown.org/luckytown-ads-digest/v07.n280

Answer: Quite fittingly, the first CD made in the United States for commercial release was Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album, "Born in the U.S.A." But it wasn't the first commercially available CD ever. That title belongs to Billy Joel's "52nd Street," which was released on CD in Japan in 1982.

The first CD ever produced was the 1981 album "Visitors" by ABBA, but it was not the first CD to be released commercially. The first commercial CD release was Billy Joel Released in Japan... ~ by Answerbag Staff