3-inch CD single

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[edit] The Format

The 3-inch CD was first released in the United Kingdom, Japan, USA France, Germany and Hong Kong in 1988. A 3-inch CD is manufactured using the same methods as standard 5-inch CDs, and can be played in most standard audio CD players and CD-ROM drives. Although the format was not widely available in the United Kingdom, several artists, such as Garbage, Catatonia, R.E.M. have released singles in the format.

Some of the more collectable 3" CD singles around today were *from Japan called 3"CD Snap-pack,as they could be 'snapped' and folded into a *small square rather than being the 6" by 3" inch length type of packaging *involved.

Most cost about ¥1000(Yen) about(£5 or $10) at the time of releasing them during *the late 80's to early 90's.
So most of the music artists availiable are from that era,
including Madonna, U2 & Wham!,George Michael just to name afew.

US versions were similar in the 6" by 3" packaging, though the *artwork on the covers were different to the Japanese versions.
UK 3"CDs were made mostly in a small square form only, some *including the 5"CD adapter to use in normal players.

Most of the 3" CD singles had at least 2 tracks:

1.Single version
2.Instrumental version (without lyrics).

From a technical standpoint, a 3-inch CD follows the Redbook standard for CD digital audio. The major difference is that the smaller physical size of the disc allows for fewer data sectors, meaning the disc can store less audio. The majority of audio CD players and CD-ROM drives have a smaller circular indentation in the CD tray for holding these discs. Some slot-loading drives, however, are unable to manipulate the smaller discs. (Such drives are commonly encountered in car CD players.) The Format barely lasted into the early 1990s, being replaced by the more conventional and easy to produce 5" CD Single format.