Sony Admits Mp3 Error

[JavaGeek]

Sony Computer Entertainment's president, Ken Kutaragi, admitted that Sony missed on potential sales from MP3 players (read the full article here).

I really think this is great news. It seems to confirm the rumors that new MD players will play MP3 natively, and hopefully they will also release firmware upgrades for current MD owners.

I'm very happy about this information, and I applaud Sony for its maturity both in understanding they were wrong, and admitting it. It makes me glad I chose a Sony product as my main music source.

[petertkalec]

Yeah, I was talking to some retail folks here in Halifax, and I know they're often Larrys, but they had also heard rumours from inside the retail circles about native mp3 support for MD. I know it doesn't mean much, but there is lots of murmurs from lots of different sides about this.

Man, firmware upgrades would be sweet... but I suspect I'd be buying ANOTHER MD player. Jeez.

[dex Otaku]

I wonder if the execs responsible for the original decision have to commit seppuku...

And, in the long as well as short run, I really don't think mp3 support will make that much difference to MD's survival.

If they stopped trying to marked the format as a competitor to the iPod and such [which it can't really compete with that well, IMO], they should market the format as the ultimate one for RECORDING.

Their marketing never seems to address the recording features of MD or HiMD at all - which is strange, because 100% of the people I've ever met who own MD or HiMD equipment bought it primarily for that purpose. None of them bought them as music players.

Not one.

[JavaGeek]

Their marketing never seems to address the recording features of MD or HiMD at all - which is strange, because 100% of the people I've ever met who own MD or HiMD equipment bought it primarily for that purpose.  None of them bought them as music players. 

Not one.

←

Well.... I did bought mine to be used exclusively as a music player. I liked the idea of using minidiscs to classify my music and switch between them depending on the mood I'm in. I also liked the fact that I can get limitless amount of storage, as long as I keep buying minidiscs. And to top it off, the FM features complete the circle, for when I'm bored from my own music (or want to listen to Howard Stern).

I haven't even tried recording, and I don't have a mic. I did had an idea about my minidisc player, a 1-to-1 cable and a movie theater with audio jacks for the hearing impaired (just an idea, I'd never do something like that).

[bug80]

I wonder if the execs responsible for the original decision have to commit seppuku...

And, in the long as well as short run, I really don't think mp3 support will make that much difference to MD's survival.

If they stopped trying to marked the format as a competitor to the iPod and such [which it can't really compete with that well, IMO], they should market the format as the ultimate one for RECORDING. 

Their marketing never seems to address the recording features of MD or HiMD at all - which is strange, because 100% of the people I've ever met who own MD or HiMD equipment bought it primarily for that purpose.  None of them bought them as music players. 

Not one.

←

Couldn't agree more. I bought my unit in the first place for exchanging recordings between the studio and my PC at home (which, well, aaargghh, don't have to explain any further I think..), second as a player for on the road.

In the beginning I complimented Sony for their marketing strategy, when they won the battle with Philips' DCC format. My memory says the audioquality DCC was even better than Minidisc in those days (no compression, 20 bit audio). But right now, the competition is indeed in a very different league. For about the price of a hi-MD player with 4 discs, you can buy an iPod mini with a 4 GB HDD. 1) An iPod is cool, 2) You can use iTunes for transfering tracks.

They really should not aim at general musiclovers, but to musicians, journalists and the like. Which means they have to change their policy on digital uploading to a PC too!

* EDIT *

I've just read the artical. It's just so strange, Sony officials now say, what MD users already have said for years. Maybe they should establish a closer relationship to their customers

Edited January 21, 2005 by bug80

[dex Otaku]

In the beginning I complimented Sony for their marketing strategy, when they won the battle with Philips' DCC format. My memory says the audioquality DCC was even better than Minidisc in those days (no compression, 20 bit audio). But right now, the competition is indeed in a very different league. For about the price of a hi-MD player with 4 discs, you can buy an iPod mini with a 4 GB HDD. 1) An iPod is cool, 2) You can use iTunes for transfering tracks.

They really should not aim at general musiclovers, but to musicians, journalists and the like. Which means they have to change their policy on digital uploading to a PC too!

←

DCC used PASC [Precision Adaptive Sub-Coding] which eventually became MPEG-1 Layer II audio. I.E. PASC = MP2. Compression was about 4:1 as opposed to MD's approximately 5:1.

I'll point out that when I said "everyone I've met" I meant that literally, as in, "everyone I've ever met in person."

I agree completely with your saying they need to change the DRM policy.

Because really - every person I've met who owns MD equipment uses it for recording. Very few of them use it for bootlegging, even. None of them use it for copying other people's CDs or the like. Invariably, they all use it for recording performances of their band, or doing foley recording, or something else on location. Every CBC radio employee I've ever met has an MZ-R37 with a custom-made aluminum bracket mounted to the back holding an XLR to 3.5mm adapter to it, for instance. I imagine CBC alone in my province probably has as many MD portables as the entire rest of the province put together.

Point being: Next to no one I have met uses MD or HiMD for illegal recordings. All of them are amateur/enthusiast, semipro, or professional recordists. Which really places MD, which is considered consumer equipment, into a strange cross-category where it's being used for far more than it was even maybe intended for.

DRM is a control mechanism that is entended for average consumers.

And honestly - I've never seen -any- indication [in Canada at least] that anyone buying an MD or HiMD would count as an average consumer.

They aren't buying them to replace their CD portables. They aren't buying them because they're cute.

They're buying them because they're a small, robust, cost-effective medium for recording.

Of course, many of them [as with myself] end up using them double-duty. My original thought was not to use my NH700 as a player at all, but then I thought - hey, it's there, why not use it? And really, it's no more inconvenient than the samsung mp3 CD portable I was using already - and it sounds a hell of a lot better.

That said, if someone offered me an iPod, I'd take it, and I'd likely never use my 700 for playback again.

[Justin42]

I have to agree that Sony, for normally being so good at marketing (to the point of being scary, such as how much hype they had for the PS2 and now the PSP) never has seemed to have the slightest clue what to do with the Minidisc format. I remember when it first came out wondering why they were trying to make it a competitor to the portable CD player instead of really hyping up the recordability aspect. I think it was another thread, but someone here pointed out MDs existed for YEARS before the recordable CD became available to the average consumer. Had Sony bit the bullet, dropped the price a bit, and really played that up, we may have a very different format.

And now they want to try to present MD as the ultimate portable music player. Not much different than the initial (failed) strategy.

Does anyone in Sony (besides the engineering group) even know what a Minidisc unit IS or CAN DO? I fell in love with the format when I first heard about it (for recording) and it took me YEARS to finally get a unit at a decent price (for *my* budget).

If Sony really learned its lesson (and this story is VERY good news), I still think MD could be a success with native drag and drop MP3 playback (do they seriously think people will pick MD over any of the million native MP3 players if they leave it in a DRM cage??), and dropping of the overly restrictive PC uploading rules. They're so concerned someone, somewhere may possibly be losing money due to MD "misuse" they're missing the fact THEY are the ones missing out...

(and great point above, at least in the US, normal consumers do NOT buy MD, at least not now. They're catering to a market that wants what MD provides and will stick by it despite the draconian framework Sony provides. "Normal" consumers long ago turned their nose at living within those restrictions...)

Edited January 21, 2005 by Justin42

[hobgoblin]

remeber, sony is not only one of the biggest electronics corps, they allso own one of the biggest music portfolios on this planet. hell, the music department used the electronics department indirectly over equipment being used to pirate music (or some shit like that). basicly its a mess and the ceo had to step in and tell them to clean up and present a common front or else. sony have become to big for their own good, they risk stepping on their own fingers no matter what...

as for dumping sonicstage and allowing for direct upload? fat chance. not only does it leave em open for pirateing abuse (selling a metallica mp3 collection on the street maybe?) but it allso makes them unable to create a rival to apples online music shop and itunes

Edited January 21, 2005 by hobgoblin

[rirsa]

Point being: Next to no one I have met uses MD or HiMD for illegal recordings.  All of them are amateur/enthusiast, semipro, or professional recordists.  Which really places MD, which is considered consumer equipment, into a strange cross-category where it's being used for far more than it was even maybe intended for.

DRM is a control mechanism that is entended for average consumers.

←

Exactly. Apple killed them in the player market and companies like Edirol and Marantz are going to kill them in the low end (i.e. sub-$500) "amateur/enthusiast, semipro, or professional recordists" market. Many users are producing their own content so copyright isn't an issue. What is an issue is that Sony's slow/unreliable digital upload and DRM/Wav converter nonsense unnecessarily inserters itself into the work flow and annoys the hell out of anyone creating and working with original material.