Trivia Time

An interesting bit of trivia. Ever wonder why the audio capacity of a standard compact disk is 74 minutes? Thank Beethoven - and Norio Ohga.

In the early 1980's, Sony was helping to develop a new digital music technology. Mr. Ohga, then the company's president, insisted that no matter what else, the new format had to be able to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony without interruption. Mr. Ohga, you see, had been a classical vocalist before getting into electronics.

(Originally posted on my old blog on Fri, 31 Oct 2003)