The
Blue Book is a
compact disc standard developed in 1995 by
Philips and
Sony. It defines the
Enhanced Music CD format (
E-CD, also known as
CD-Extra,
CD-Plus and
CD+), which combines
audio tracks and
data tracks on the same disc. The format was created as a way to solve the problem of
mixed mode CDs, which were not properly supported by many CD players. The standard is not freely available and must be licensed from Philips.