Ageing badly: the MiniDisc at 30

In November 1992, Sony launched the world’s first MiniDisc player, the MZ-1, which was also a recorder. In 2000, I bought my first and only MiniDisc recorder: a Sharp MD-SR50. However, I didn’t use it much and, after two or three years, I didn’t use it at all. I was far from the only one. What initially felt like a practical, modern medium ended up being a flop.

The CD already existed

As a pure playback medium, the MiniDisc had a hard time from the start. There were already CDs. They were uncomplicated and offered good sound quality even with poor treatment. Like everyone else, I’d already built up an extensive CD collection around the turn of the millennium. There was no reason to shift this collection to a whole new medium. And shops continued to only sell CDs. Even at its peak, the MiniDisc’s market share was so small that it’s not even visible on graphs. Sony was the only major label to release pre-recorded MiniDiscs at all.

Sony thought the CD had replaced the record as a pure playback medium, so the same had to happen with recordable media. By this logic, the MiniDisc should have replaced the cassette, but the CD was more than just a replacement for the record. It was portable and increasingly replacing the Walkman. Plus, you could burn CDs yourself.

DIY recordings

The only thing I couldn’t do with a CD was record live. This was definitely the MiniDisc’s niche. I took my MiniDisc recorder into the rehearsal room a few times. Above all, this made me realise that our band rehearsals sounded terrible – regardless of whether they were recorded digitally or not. Alone at home, without the influence of alcohol and THC, I didn’t want to do that to myself.

The MiniDisc recorder also lacked the speed control on my portable cassette player, which allowed the pitch to be brought into line with an existing recording.

The bottom line for me was that the MiniDisc was just another opportunity to make my own recordings. It didn’t change anything major compared to the cassette.

Suddenly, everything happened very quickly

Just one year later, in 2001, I owned a laptop which I could use to record in the rehearsal room. That was a much bigger change. The recording was now a file that could be quickly copied, exported as an MP3 and sent over the Internet. Much more practical than fiddling with MiniDiscs, whose data was digital but couldn’t be used on a computer. Even CDs were now more convenient, as they could be copied on the computer in minutes.

MP3 and the Internet also had a huge impact outside the small world of amateur musicians. File sharing even got the massively successful CD into trouble. Once there were MP3 recorders with SSD, the MiniDisc lost all raison d’être.

There was nothing wrong with the MiniDisc itself; it just wasn’t needed. Stuck between CD and cassette, this delicate flower only thrived slowly – and was then very quickly crushed by the digital revolution.

Is the MiniDisc good for a bit of nostalgia?

The question remains whether the MiniDisc could still experience a renaissance as a collector’s item. My verdict: definitely not.

Because the MiniDisc’s time was short and its position marginalised, it left little trace on the collective memory. You probably have fond memories of it, otherwise you wouldn’t have clicked on this post. But that puts you in a minority. Unlike records and cassettes, the MiniDisc isn’t capable of triggering a strong longing in most people.

I haven’t had my recorder for a long time. So, I bought one for this post to see how I would react emotionally to it. It was sobering. Old memories resurfaced, but mostly negative ones that I’d repressed. For example, that I have to divide the tracks by hand. That I could name the tracks, but that’s much too tedious for me. That the device isn’t silent; it rattles along. That the batteries don’t last long. That the LCD has very low contrast.

Unlike vinyl or tape, you don’t see the music moving as it plays. It’s even less of a sensory experience than a CD, which at least isn’t enclosed in a grey, rattling plastic box.

From today’s perspective, the MiniDisc isn’t practical either. You can now record and play back wirelessly with any smartphone. With the MiniDisc, you have three cables on one tiny device for when you run out of batteries and need AC power. Recording an album takes as long as the album lasts, so a pretty long time. At least the sound quality is still alright by today’s standards.

I have a thing for vintage audio. Old amplifiers, cassettes, reel-to-reel tape, records and I can even get something out of CDs. But I won’t shed a tear for the MiniDisc.

Does anyone happen to need a MiniDisc recorder?