CD Universe.com is an e-commerce site that sells music CDs,

mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

downloads, movies, and video games worldwide. CD Universe also offers a wide selection of miscellaneous items such as stuffed animals, jigsaw puzzles, board games, etc.

History

CD Universe was created in 1996 by founder and CEO Charles Beilman in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

, United States, where it is still maintained and operated. CD Universe lists over 940,000 physical products and over 6 million downloadable songs. In 1999, CD Universe was sold by Charles Beilman to

eUniverse Intermix Media, Inc. ( AMX symbol: MIX; formerly eUniverse) is an American Internet marketing company that owned the MySpace social network. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is a subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media, In ...

. Charles Beilman bought CD Universe back from eUniverse in October, 2000 after eUniverse decided they wanted to focus on their entertainment business (they eventually owned MySpace). In 2009, CD Universe began selling digital music in the DRM-free mp3 format, through their relationship with Neurotic Media. Mr. Beilman retired in January 2020.

Charity work

In September 2014, CD Universe began an effort to help raise money for the well known and fiscally responsible charity called

Room to Read Room to Read is a global non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. The organization focuses on working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to improve literacy and gender equalit ...

. CD Universe helps to support

's goal of teaching every child to read and write, thus breaking the cycle of poverty. CD Universe also supports

The American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

. Visitors that donate using the link on their website will have their donations matched by CD Universe.

Website security

CD Universe protects its customers' sensitive information in the same way that all reputable online companies do: using SSL (

Secure Sockets Layer Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securi ...

). CD Universe experienced a security breach in December 1999. Although this security breach was a major setback for the company and its customers' trust, CD Universe was able to stay in business and proceeded with an investigation. The hacker, however, a Russian known only by the name of "Maxus", was never caught. Since this incident, CD Universe reorganized its administration and the security features of its website. CD Universe is now monitored by outside companies such as

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...

who test their website daily for security gaps. The internet security provider Norton has also confirmed that CD Universe is a safe, secure place to shop online.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.cduniverse.com Online music stores of the United States Internet properties established in 1996