History of Taiyo Yuden CD-R Taiyo Yuden invented the CD-R, along with Philips and Sony, on June 13th, 1988. At the time, Taiyo Yuden was the only manufacturer of CD-R media in the world, supplying media to many well-known CD-R distributors. The CD-R was not given the boost it needed until 1992. In that year, CD-ROM drives were introduced into the computer market. At that point, the CD-R market changed from mainly audio applications, to the data market, which because of its quick market expansion gave the CD-R notoriety and market success.