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The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

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Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#51

Post by ghaff »

yftsui wrote: post #41
LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…

Sony was really at its peak during early 2000s, MD was the crown of jewel, single battery supporting that kind of play back time with a spinning disc inside is really impressive. However in terms of market share, it is still behind tape and CD even in Asia. New albums released directly in MD is super rare, most of the time you need to have a CD, buy the CD version then record it to an empty MD. When I was a kid, only…

Sony has to be a case study in something. They had pretty much the Apple stores of the day (though not at nearly the same scale). You'd browse the one at the Metreon in SF to see the cool consumer electronics (as well as some pretty nice laptops for the time). Now? They're pretty much one of the many more or less interchangeable electronics manufacturers. Many categories of which where Sony was a premium (mainstream) provider like home stereos seem much diminished, at least anecdotally.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#53

Post by tcldr »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…

Maybe because people weren't buying pre-recorded MiniDiscs? But as far as I can tell, that wasn't the point...

In the late 90s I had a Sharp 722 (in champagne gold iirc) and you could plug that thing into a pair of decks (UK Garage at that time) and get rich, beautiful sound out of it – fully captured the texture of the vinyl.

CDs were awkward, needed to lie horizontal, and prone to skipping and getting scratched up.

MiniDisc was never a replacement for CDs, but a replacement for cassettes – and at that, they were great.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#54

Post by tcldr »

lookalike74 wrote: post #45
arpa wrote: post #3

What really killed this format is the draconian copy protection that crippled the software for getting the tracks on device (for NET MD players). Other method(s) of getting sound on MD was essentially dubbing, like you would with MC. Other players removed the artificial barriers of getting your music on device, and it turned out that antipiracy measures are not a feature... which is a shame, because the feel and soun…

I bought an Aiwa mini-stereo with CD & MD that came with a portable MD player. The portable had a AA battery attachment, and I could go most of the day on the rechargeable and pop that on when needed. I bought 10 blank MD's to record and re-record with whatever I wanted, and that was all I needed for 3 years. It was great.

That was the amazing thing about the format. It didn't need much of a network effect to work as you could just record your own stuff. And obviously, as soon as one person in the group got one, many others followed. It was great.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#55

Post by bombcar »

aktuel wrote: post #14

I guess the iPod is also a failure then since no one uses them anymore.

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

The original iPod wasn’t a thunderous success but Apple continued to iterate on it and when they release a non-FireWire version that worked with Windows it really took off.

Had they dogmatically insisted on FireWire and Mac only it may have remained a niche thing.

And of course it greatly contributed to the success of the iPhone because why not get an iPod that could make calls and save pocket space?

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#56

Post by [deleted] »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…

[deleted]

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#57

Post by nradov »

ghaff wrote: post #51
yftsui wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony was really at its peak during early 2000s, MD was the crown of jewel, single battery supporting that kind of play back time with a spinning disc inside is really impressive. However in terms of market share, it is still behind tape and CD even in Asia. New albums released directly in MD is super rare, most of the time you need to have a CD, buy the CD version then record it to an empty MD. When I was a kid, only…

Sony has to be a case study in something. They had pretty much the Apple stores of the day (though not at nearly the same scale). You'd browse the one at the Metreon in SF to see the cool consumer electronics (as well as some pretty nice laptops for the time). Now? They're pretty much one of the many more or less interchangeable electronics manufacturers. Many categories of which where Sony was a premium (mainstream)…

Sony is a case study in the consequences of focusing on individual hit hardware products rather than sustainable, adaptable software platforms.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#58

Post by kube-system »

aktuel wrote: post #14

I guess the iPod is also a failure then since no one uses them anymore.

When iPod sales peaked, Apple was selling as many in a single fiscal quarter as the number of MiniDisc players Sony sold over 20 years… about 22 million.

Sony sold 18 million BetaMax players.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#59

Post by sli »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…

I got interested in MD during high school in the late 90s/early 2000s. I was the only person I knew that owned a MiniDisc recorder/player, and my friends and I recorded what were basically podcasts onto my two boxes of blank discs. It's a damn shame the format didn't catch on in the US, I loved the it.

Re: The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)

#60

Post by JKCalhoun »

tcldr wrote: post #53
LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

They say history is written by the winners, but when it comes to technology, history is written by Americans. MiniDisc was a huge success for Sony, and was the winner of the tape-replacement format war in virtually every country - except the USA. It was so successful that Sony is still making blank MiniDiscs today. (Though they are not sold there, Americans can type MDW80T into eBay if they'd like some brand-new Mini…

Maybe because people weren't buying pre-recorded MiniDiscs? But as far as I can tell, that wasn't the point... In the late 90s I had a Sharp 722 (in champagne gold iirc) and you could plug that thing into a pair of decks (UK Garage at that time) and get rich, beautiful sound out of it – fully captured the texture of the vinyl. CDs were awkward, needed to lie horizontal, and prone to skipping and getting scratched up.…

There was something quite nice about the audible quality of MiniDisc compression.

Is this past year of COVID to blame? I had been rekindling some nostalgia for my brief foray into MiniDisc over two decades ago (it had been too brief). And then my daughter, born after the iPod but likely channelling part of that retro zeitgeist, wanted to experiment with/explore cassette tapes. No, no, MiniDisc, I said. And then I proceeded to buy way too many of the devices on eBay.

I have a bigger collection now of both players and discs than I did when I first dipped my toe into MiniDisc.

I think both she and I enjoy mix-tape vs. playlist. Trying to pick songs to fit within 80 or 74 minutes.

And then somehow the "I want to hear something mellow" and then the physical insertion of a disc.... Something tangible in an increasingly intangible world?

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