MiniDisc: Retro to the Future
Photos by the author
“Hey, is that a MiniDisc player?” asked the young man behind the hotel concierge desk. I proudly held up my shiny silver Sony MZ-R70 and nodded. I was surprised that someone so young would recognize a 1990’s era MiniDisc player at a glance, but this does occasionally happen whenever I walk around enjoying tunes on my preferred portable stereo format. This latest instance of random public recognition occurred on March 7, 2020 while attending my last pre-pandemic conference. That date had the added significance of being the first annual International MiniDisc Day! There are a number of generally accepted beliefs about MiniDisc, including that this digital music format never took off, was obsolete upon release, and became a mere footnote within the technological chronology leading to today’s unlimited streaming audio. Yet, dozens of independent artists released brand new music, on MiniDisc, on International MiniDisc Day, signifying that the widely reported demise of this format is perhaps exaggerated.
Sony developed MiniDisc to replace the compact cassette as a mainstream medium for people to make their own recordings of their favourite music in a convenient format for listening pleasure on the go. In the age of compact disc audio, digital recording of near-CD quality music was a must. The futuristic magneto-optical recording device that Sony launched in 1992 is, even today, an engineering marvel. When Sony managed to miniaturize their players down to barely larger than the disc itself, it is a wonder that they crammed in a motor for spinning the disc, a laser (which reads the disc and also heats it up to its 180°C Curie point during recording), a magnetic write head, circuit board and microchips (which enable Sony’s compression algorithm and up to 40 seconds of anti-skip buffer memory), LCD display, headphone amp and various control buttons, all powered by a small battery (gumstick or AA). It has direct track access, track titles, program modes, and the ability to edit the running order after recording. As for the almost infinitely re-recordable MiniDisc itself, it is a thing of beauty.
Let us examine two of the widely accepted beliefs about MiniDisc, which are perhaps more myth than truth.
Myth #1: It never took off. While this is true to a large extent in North America, MiniDisc did enjoy a large market share in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, as well as throughout Europe and very much so in the United Kingdom. From its launch in 1992, MiniDisc media (both blank and pre-recorded) and equipment were actively marketed and sold until 2013. In that time, according to the encyclopedic www.minidisc.org, some 30 manufacturers produced more than 850 different devices! Twenty-one years is a long run for a technology that “never took off.” It certainly enjoyed a longer run than its unquestionably less successful contemporaries like Digital Audio Tape, and even the devices that eventually supplanted it: Apple’s iPod has only been on the market for nineteen years!
Myth #2: It became obsolete as soon as it came out. MiniDisc was launched into a storm of competing technologies, and it eventually did succumb. However, there was a three year period when there really were no commercially relevant alternatives for digital recording, until writable CDs became affordable for consumers around 1995–96. Re-writable CDs followed soon after, but portable CD players were bulky and so the more compact MiniDisc retained a niche. Even in the face of the growing trend of downloaded music files, Sony continued to develop MiniDisc software and hardware to adapt to the changing times. In 2000, MDLP (MiniDisc Long Play) was introduced. This new version of Sony’s proprietary ATRAC compression algorithm allowed for twice (LP2 mode) or quadruple (LP4 mode) the amount of music that could be stored on a single disc compared to the standard SP mode. In 2001, NetMD was introduced, allowing users to download music files from a PC onto MiniDisc via USB connection and SonicStage software. 2004 saw the arrival of Hi-MD, a new encoding algorithm that allowed up to 1 GB of storage (up to 34 hours of music) on a special Hi-MD disc, and also for the first time lossless recording via linear PCM. So, rather than immediately becoming obsolete, MiniDisc technology was continually re-imagined by Sony to meet changing consumer needs throughout its two decade run.
The last MiniDisc player left Sony’s factory in 2011 and sales ceased in 2013. It’s now 2020. Most people access music very differently now than in 1992. Who can resist streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music that offer millions of songs at a tap of their smartphone? What possible reasons could there be for someone like me to continue using and championing MiniDisc? Why are independent musicians releasing new music on MiniDisc, thus spurring a “MiniComeback” in the process?
For me, the first reason to continue using MiniDisc is the same reason I bought my first portable unit in 1997. They are just so irresistibly cool! Sony and other manufacturers like Sharp and Kenwood allowed their designers to indulge themselves when dreaming up designs and colours for discs and players. Most of us from that era had ample experience recording mix tapes onto cassettes, but these things seemed so incredibly futuristic!
Is the sound quality of a MiniDisc player superior to a smart phone? Maybe. It depends on the particular player, file format, how a disc was recorded, and headphones. For optimal sound quality, I like to use high quality headphones paired with older generation MiniDisc players which seem to have better quality headphone amps than later models. I still sometimes record from CD to MiniDisc just like in the 90s, but these days I have my old dogs doing new tricks by recording digitally off Apple Music using the optical output from the headphone jack of an older model MacBook Pro. The digital-audio converter of the MiniDisc player is superior to the one in my laptop, so the resulting sound is better. However, sound quality is not the most important reason for my ongoing fascination with MiniDisc.
Most users of streaming services probably don’t mind that their monthly subscription fee leaves them without permanent ownership of their favourite content. For many of us who grew up buying vinyl, cassettes and CDs, it seems odd not having something we can hold in our hands with the assurance of owning it forever even if Apple goes bust one day. That tactile element of playing music from physical storage media like a MiniDisc gives me a sense of comfort and security that no streaming service or Internet service provider can offer.
Beyond the physicality, nostalgia and coolness factor of MiniDisc lies a deeper reason for continuing to use it daily to enjoy my music library. Having millions of songs at one’s fingertips is an amazing testament to the power of today’s technology, not to mention a miraculous transformation in music licensing. But, it can be daunting. What will I listen to this morning? How does one choose? Do I simply allow the algorithm to assemble a playlist for me? It used to be that selecting music for the day’s commute or workout or dinner party required some thought and effort, which made the listening experience more rewarding. When preparing music for a flight or bus ride, there was mindfulness and purpose in the selection of those three or four discs that would accompany us on the journey. There was a human element behind the making of a mix-tape (or mix-disc) that remained with that compilation over time and distance. These intangible human factors keep me coming back to this nearly three decades old technology, and I think about them with every compilation I record onto MiniDisc.
It is unlikely that a global comeback will elevate MiniDisc to any sort of mainstream presence. However, events like International MiniDisc Day and the more than six hundred people who follow my MiniDisc themed Instagram account (@minidiscovery) are proof that a dedicated segment of the world continues to hold a place in their lives for this allegedly obsolete technology. Maybe it’s a way to keep one foot mindfully grounded in the world of physical media and mechanical audio players while everything else in our virtual universe spins and swirls unpredictably. In 1992, MiniDisc seemingly arrived from the future. Today, with new music releases and the ability to archive streaming playlists, it remains relevant as a bridge between the way we owned and handled music in the past and the way most of us now access and consume content. Looking ahead, as long as one has a functioning player, future relevance of the MiniDisc is assured by the sense of meaning and purpose encoded onto each disc along with the ones and zeroes. Is that a MiniDisc player? Yes, friends, it most certainly is! 💽
