(cross-posted from twitter, excuse the format...)
so, i recently announced my minidisc release "3", but some of you might be asking: "so uh... what is minidisc?" i'm SO glad you asked!!!! (grabs you by the neck and sits you down so you can't run away)
in the 90s, sony wanted to develop a followup to their massive hit: the walkman, and its rugged and endlessly useful cassette tape. the limits of tape were becoming apparent: compared to a CD, they were unyieldy without an index, and the sound quality wore down with time
what they came up with was minidisc--a digital format (magneto-optical, i'm told) with all the advantages of CD AND all the advantages of tape, with the downsides of neither, presented in a beautifully aesthetic, futuristic (to this day IMO!) package
so what are these advantages of each format preceding MDs?
CD:
- does not deteriorate in quality with repeated plays
- has an table of content/index, meaning you can find any song at any time, play songs in random order, program an order you like, etc. Cassette:
- trivially record and re-record music onto it, using audio in
- extremely sturdy, protected from dust and debris, and won't skip even while jogging with it
guess what: MDs do all of this and more!
it even has additional unique features:
- you can edit, cut, label, merge (etc.) recordings ON the device itself--and fast!
- has grouping: so you can separate albums out
- later on it added audio compresson to fit several hours on one disc
of course on top of all that, minidiscs are just incredibly beautiful to look at. both the players and the discs themselves are just wonderful. look at these beauties from my collection! (and NO, i DONT have a problem)
minidiscs are also (in)famous for being awesome for recording bootlegs (i think they are still used for that to this day? due to their tiny size and solid recording quality). in fact, the fact that they made it trivial to record and share music, made them an enemy of the RIAA
which may go some way to explain why MDs were successful in europe and japan, but remain relatively obscure in the US. in japan you could even find kiosks that would let you stick a MD into it, and "download" singles right onto it! finding this out blew my mind...
anyway, i hope you gained some appreciation for minidisc, my favorite music format. thank you for listening to my ted talk LOL and if you are interested in supporting my fetishistic fascination with MDs, you can pre-order my release here: https://piecewi.se/campaign/surasshu
