Shaped compact disc

A logo can be printed on a shaped CD, in the same way common audio CDs and CD-ROMs are labeled.

Recordable CDs and DVDs (CD-R or DVD-R or DVD+R) are not generally available except in standard shapes including rectangular.

They appear silver and reflective on the data side of the CD, even though they contain no actual valid bytes and cannot be read.

The Flaming Lips released a CD single for the song "This Here Giraffe" on a disc in the shape of an 8-pointed star.

The CD soundtrack to the 1997 game Yoshi's Story, an album called Music to Pound the Ground To, came in an asymmetrical shape outlining Yoshi's face and some fruits in the background; similarly, the CD soundtrack to the 1997 game Diddy Kong Racing came in an asymmetrical shape outlining Diddy Kong's head.

An additional example is the 2002 live EP Alive in Torment, released by symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir.

British death metal band Carcass also released a limited edition of their 1996 album Swansong as a CD shaped like a brain.

They can even get stuck in these players, or be rejected if the tray-loading mechanism has optical sensors to detect the disc position.

Picture of the back of a shaped CD. This CD was produced as a round disc and automatically cut to shape using a computer-aided machine with a rotary tool. It is easy to distinguish that the data track of the disc is smaller compared to a full 72-minute disc; it ends before it reaches the outside border of the disc to allow the unused media on the outside to be cut away.
One shape of business-card CD.