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An interesting Business Week article details Sony's plans to start selling MP3s without copy-prevention measures. From the article: "The impetus to lift copyright protection represents a sea change for the recording industry, which for the better part of a decade has used DRM to guard against what it considers illegal distribution and duplication of songs purchased online. In abandoning DRM on à la carte song purchases, the labels could create a raft of new, less restrictive ways of selling music over the Internet, such as through social networks like Facebook and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. Partnerships with retailers such as Amazon could also help the music industry take a swipe at Apple (AAPL), which has come to dominate the legal download market through a one-size-fits-all pricing scheme record labels find restrictive." If only Sony had come to their senses about DRM 15 years ago, Minidisc might have had a very different place in history.

As a friend once said, the term "Music Industry" is an oxymoron. Music is not an industrial product, but rather a personal creation. I wonder if file copying will end the era of mega-artists and return us to the days when home grown music is listened to live in local venues. Would it be so bad?

Wired has a fascinating article about Doug Morris and Universal's response to digital music. From the article: Easy profits ended up blinding the industry to the threat of MP3s. Throughout the '90s, a handful of insiders warned of the need to get out in front of digital music, but for the most part they were ignored. The big corporations that had snapped up record labels in the '80s and '90s continued to focus on short-term financial results, even as it become amply clear that the advantages of CDs — control, convenience, durability, flexibility — were even more pronounced with digital files. "There's this mentality of always needing to make the numbers for the next quarter," says Ted Cohen, a former exec at EMI and Warner Bros., now managing partner at the consulting firm TAG Strategic. "It kept me up at night. Some of us could see that something needed to be done, but no one wanted to do anything that wouldn't maximize profit for that quarter." Morris was as myopic as anyone. Today, when he complains about how digital music created a completely new way of doing business, he actually sounds angry. "This business had been the same for 25 years," he says. "The hardest thing was to get something that somebody wanted to buy — to make a product that anybody liked." And that's what Morris, and everyone else, continued to focus on. "The record labels had an opportunity to create a digital ecosystem and infrastructure to sell music online, but they kept looking at the small picture instead of the big one," Cohen says. "They wouldn't let go of CDs." It was a serious blunder, considering that MP3s clearly had the potential to break the major labels' lock on distribution channels. Instead of figuring out a way to exploit the new medium, they alternated between ignoring it and launching lawsuits against the free file-sharing networks that cropped up to fill the void.

An article in the Guardian (UK) mentions transferring audio from MD to PC. The upshot -- you can't do it with NetMD gear.

The New York Times has an fascinating article about Rick Rubin, new co-head of music at Sony-owned Columbia Records. From the article: Columbia is stuck in the dark ages. I have great confidence that we will have the best record company in the industry, but the reality is, in today's world, we might have the best dinosaur. Until a new model is agreed upon and rolling, we can be the best at the existing paradigm, but until the paradigm shifts, it's going to be a declining business. This model is done."

We're looking for a volunteer to help keep our news current. If you've got good English skills and are interested in Minidisc, please drop a us a line at md-webmaster@minidisc.org. Thanks!

As first reported in AtracLife, articles in Engadget and elsewhere indicate that Sony has dropped ATRAC and SonicStage from its latest solid state walkman, preferring the MP3 format and Drag-and-drop loading. The Sony NWD-B100, to be introduced in Europe in August, comes in 1GB and 2GB flavors and plays audio in MP3, WMA and streaming analog FM formats.

An interesting article on c|net uk discusses format wars and lost formats that should have won, including Minidisc. From the article: MiniDisc was fantastically versatile. You could buy pre-recorded music on the format or simply use your hi-fi to copy a CD to a blank disc. MiniDisc's hard outer case meant the surface of the disc was far less likely to become scratched and damaged over time. One of the best things about the format is the size of the players and the media. Initially the hardware was quite bulky, but as time went on, portable player/recorders were developed that were just a little bit larger than a MiniDisc, which made them ideal portable music players.

Minidisc Access is reporting that their 3-drawer model One Touch Storage Boxes are back in stock for $33, plus shipping. The units hold 60 discs with sleeves, 96 without.

Minidisc Access is offering a free MD case with any purchase over $15.

The Tascam MD-CD1 ($700) and MD-350 ($460) rack mount decks are again available from Minidisco. The MD-CD1 is unique in that it can dub from MP3-CDs to MDs (at 1x speed); CD-DA dubbing is at 4x (SP mode) or 2x (Mono, LP2 and LP4).

David Ing has a thoughtful blog about moving on from Minidisc, as seen from the eyes of an early adopter.

Jason Nicholas has put together a fine review of the HHB MDP-500 professional portable MD recorder.

Starting today we will be adding Google adsense banners to the website. We apologize to our loyal following for this additional intrusion. The Google ads are an attempt to sustain advertising revenue without being overly invasive. Minidisco is still our primary sponsor and we thank them kindly for that. The adsense banners appear on all pages, as a single banner across the top. Your comments are welcome. -Eric Woudenberg

Richard Prinsloo points out Akiba-Gadgets coverage of the rack-mounted Marantz CM6001P CD/MD deck. The unit sports MDLP support (but not Hi-MD) and fully digital I/Os.

Richard Prinsloo points out Kenwood's DPX-66MD and DPX-55MD(S) car MDLP units. They play CDs, MDs and accept audio through a front panel aux-in jack. Prices are ¥44,100 and ¥39,900 respectively. Sadly Japanese FM-band only.

And Peace on Earth.+++ Another year is drawing to a close and it gives us great pleasure to thank all our readers and members alike for your continued support. We will pass 50,000 members very soon and the growth and interest this year has been phenonmenal. Thank you all for your contributions. On behalf of the moderating team here at MDCF we wish you Happy Holidays and all the very best for 2007! (thanks for the image + words, Rich)

Matt (of Minidisco) points out a photo of John Bolton in front of a Sony MZ-B100 at a UN press briefing.

Robin Sharrock has made a lovely, in depth review of the Onkyo MD-105FX HiMD deck, one of the only HiMD decks in the world.

2006 TDK "WA" Blanks in 74-Min ($2) and 80-Min ($2.50) lengths have just arrived at MinidiscAccess and Minidisco.

MiniDisc Access has just received a limited supply of One Touch Storage Boxes in a variety of colors and sizes, which hold from 20 to 96 discs. They're called One Touch because that's all it takes to press the button that smoothly slides out the drawers. (The animated photo shows a CD case, but the MD cases work the same way).

Minidisco and Minidisc-Canada are both reporting that they have the Sony MZ-RH1 in stock. Minidisc-Canada's units are covered by a Sony North America Warranty, meaning Sony USA will repair units sold into the US.

Please let us know if you experience any problems.

We'll begin trying to run Minidisc.org on Apache2 sometime late Sunday evening -- you may experience temporary outages after midnight EDT. The UK Minidisc.org Mirror should be unaffected, thought it does not mirror the forums.

A 1997 Matsushita technical paper on Minidisc media longevity finds that data on MDs should be safe for years. From the article: "We have measured the lifetime of the rewritable type MD applying the measuring method used for data storage optical disks. It is considered that life of the recording film of the rewritable MD media currently available in the market is extremely long." Lots of detailed charts point out the effort they went through to simulate age-related effects on the media.