HISTORY OF MINI DISC
MiniDisc (MD) is an audio format that was developed in the 1990s and quickly rose to become one of the most popular portable audio formats of its time. Originally, the format was marketed by Sony as an digital upgrade to the cassette tape and as an alternative to the quickly developing CD format. While it did gain some mainstream acceptance, especially with musicians, the digital audio format eventually failed to impress the mass consumer market and was eventually discontinued in 2013.
Before the MiniDisc had been developed, professional recording artists were recording mainly onto cassette tapes and reel-to-reel machines. Reel-to-reel tapes had been seen as being the most superior format due to the lack ofbias distortion induced by the tape and its stereo capabilities. However, the rising availability of affordable digital audio capture hardware and constantly evolving technologies was quickly leading to the beginning of the end of reel-to-reel use by musicians.
The original MD format was announced by Sony in 1992 and was marketed as an ideal format for commercial and home recording applications for a much broader range of users than the reel-to-reel tapes had previously catered for. As such it quickly rose to become a popular format for recording demos and exporting audio content from instruments and MIDI sequences.
The popularity of the MD format rose amongst portable audio enthusiasts as it was seen as an ideal medium to realistically capture sound outdoors while on the move. This was because the disc could hold up to 140 minutes of stereo sound and had the edge over its portable tape rivals in terms of fidelity, fidelity, accuracy and portability.
However, by the end of the 1990s Sony had pushed forward their more advanced digital audio formats, such as the Memory Stick and Secure Digital Memory Card formats and, consequently, the MiniDisc’s consumer popularity started to dwindle.
In 2013, Sony finally announced that they would be discontinuing all production and sales of MiniDisc players, as the demand had significantly decreased and there were more cost-effective and better sounding alternatives. Since then, it has been largely replaced by the current generation of MP3 players and smartphones, although there are still a few audio fans that are in favour of the MiniDisc format and still keep them as an affordable way of enjoying music on the move.
Once upon a time, in the late 90s, Sony introduced the world to the MiniDisc (MD). Breaking into the music playback market with a truly revolutionary format: Digital audio compressed, recorded and stored on tiny plastic discs the size of a compact disc.
Originally intended to be the successor of the cassette tape, Sony’s MiniDisc was released in 1992 and sparked a high demand from consumers around the world. The later introduction of the version II (1992-1999) and version III (1999-2003) brought improved storage capacity and new features such as nonlinear recording which allowed users to alter the recorded sound with SHARP, a digital equalization processor.
While marketed as an ultra-portable, lightweight, battery powered solution for listening to music on the go, the MD also found its place in the recording studio. The combination of digital recording quality and nonlinear editing capabilities caught the attention of CD remixers, DJs and the home studio recorder.
But outside the studio walls, the MD found some competition from other digital recording formats such as DVD Audio and the Sony Memory Stick. Both formats allowed for larger capacities and higher quality recordings, consequently forcing the MD to take a backseat.
In 2003, Sony announced the end of development for the MD, as well as depreciation of the remaining discs and players. Yet, despite its technical disadvantages in comparison to other digital formats, such as the CD and DVD, MiniDisc still manages to have a small but active community of enthusiasts on the internet.
Thanks to a substantial number of websites, associations, blogs and forums, dedicated to the MD, armfuls of variations can be found. MiniDisc fans continue to explore the potential of their beloved format, creating new ways to use and making the most of their devices.
Today, MD enthusiasts are not only hard-core audiophiles, but also musicians, producers and home recordists, who like the originality, flexibility and portability offered by this "forgotten" digital format. For a technology that once was thought to be on borrowed time, MiniDisc has become reborn, having a revival thanks to its resilient fan base.
I'm not the original Author of this, i'll link the author and credit when I find it.
