Red Book

The Red Book is the most widespread CD standard and describes the physical properties of the compact disc and the digital audio encoding. It comprises:

• Audio specification for 16-bit PCM
• Disc specification, including physical parameters
• Optical stylus and parameters
• Deviations and block error rate
• Modulation system and error correction
• Control and display system (i.e. subcode channels).

Every single piece of music ever recorded on CD conforms to the Red Book standard. It basically allows for 74 minutes of audio per disc and for that information to be split up into tracks. A more recent addition to the Red Book describes the CD Graphics option using the subcode channels R to W. This describes the various applications of these subcode channels including graphics and MIDI.