right it's not on the 3" and 5" CD of Smooth Criminal(DIDP 071233) but it appears on the shortly before released "The Bad Mixes" Special radio promo CD(DIDP 071088)
Well scientific knowledge doesn't increase in a straight line. But remember that ruling out possible explanations is advancing knowledge even if not as useful as defining the correct answer. Ten years of thread has successfully ruled out a number of reasonable hypotheses. For myself I think the symbol was a corporate logo indicating a joint venture by CBS and Sony for the US market. The time period of the logo 1985-1994 almost precisely covers the time that CBS and Sony started joint production for US media and the final takeover of CBS in 1992. Only a few CBS/Sony CDs with the symbol were issued after 1992.There was only one non CBS CD with the symbol manufactured by CBS/Sony and that may well be a onetime goof.
It's from Gravity Falls dude, it's a nice little nod to the Residents. I always wondered what that mystery symbol meant, I'm surprised some conspiracy theorist hasn't brought up the Illuminati yet, oh yeah they have.
Except that CBS/Sony Records, a local joint venture of their Japanese record label arms CBS Records Japan and Sony Corp/Sony Records, was the original force behind Digital Audio Disc Corp. in Indiana with CBS Records US arm's blessing originally. The rest of CBS Records' US media operations were not part of or related to CBS/Sony Records or Sony Corp. until Sony Corp. bought CBS Records from CBS Inc. years later. This symbol is on CDs (including ones NOT pressed at Sony or CBS affiliated plants like JVC, Denon, Shape, etc.), cassettes, and LPs, which produced at CBS plants, not Sony related during the time. My guess is that is has something to do with distribution and returns. is the symbol on Chrysalis CDs in the USA (with the VK series cat nos.) or on cassettes or LPs? These were mfg and distributed by CBS then. Is it on all Canadian issue CBS discs? I have seen a few that are, but they were made in USA by DADC and only the inserts were unique to Canada, the disc was the same as USA. Is it on Canadian discs from Canadian Columbia House? Are they even different than retail. I have seen the discs from US BMG club with the symbol, despite the BMG barcode and markings.
A lot of this has been discussed upthread. The Sony involvement with CBS on digital audio in the US was more than DADC. The corporate takeover was only finalized by 1992 but it was agreed to officially in mid 88 and discussed prior to that. Sony and Philips controlled digital in that early time period and Sony involvement could be in digital recording, mixing, mastering and CD production. The symbol was very similar to an early 80s Sony digital audio logo. No, Canada made CDs don't have the symbol, but Japanese made CDs intended for the US market do. The connection with returns was pretty much ruled out upstream in this thread by people who worked at CBS in this time period.
Makes sense, however, the symbol started in 1985 or 1986 on all formats, so this precedes the Sony financial takeover. Interesting about it ending the use of it around the time the deal was finalized - which is maybe a clue.
I think that's just a coincidence. The 7 is similarly shaped. It's quite a funny coincidence though in terms of this thread.
We may be no closer to a definitive answer, but when things like that LP cover pop up it makes me think there might still be some obvious clues floating out there that we haven't discovered yet. Nice find!
Maybe it could mean 'microgroove' for LPs, and 'laser reading' for CD.^^ In the end I suppose the company just wanted to print something on labels so people could speculate but the thing actually has no specific meaning.