A Compact Disc (CD) is a digital optical disc storage format that was developed to store and play back music, data, and other multimedia. Introduced in the 1980s, CDs revolutionized the way music was distributed, providing higher sound quality and more durability than vinyl records or cassette tapes. CDs can hold up to 700 MB of data, equivalent to around 80 minutes of audio. Over time, CDs were adapted to store data, videos, and software. Although their popularity has declined with the rise of digital downloads and streaming services, CDs remain a common format for media distribution.