Red Book (CD Standard)

Red Book (CD Standard)

Red Book is the standard for audio CDs (Compact Disc Digital Audio system, CDDA or CD-DA). It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books (bound in different colors) that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.

The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc Committee and ratified as IEC 60908 (published in 1987). The second edition of IEC 60908 was published in 1999 and it cancels and replaces the first edition, amendment 1 (1992) and the corrigendum to amendment 1. The standard is not freely available and must be licensed from Philips.