Anyone happen to know the maximun amount of music that can fit on a single CD?
If you're using the industry standard 16 bit 44 kHz audio format, 74 minutes is the
maximum amount you can cram onto a CD. Mission of Burma has a CD out on Rykodisc that
featured about 80 minutes, but some of those songs sound like they're recorded at a
lower rate.
Of course, using MP3 compression (or one of the many similar compression schemes out
there) you can fit considerably more music onto a CD. In this case, though, the music
is treated more like computer data; it has to go through an additional decompression
stage before being translated into something your stereo and speakers will understand.
The story I've heard is that the 74 minute length was chosen because it could
comfortably fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a particular favorite of the person at
Sony who made the decision.
De nada,
Brad
