New Theory

[Guest Anonymous]

I was just thinking about some threads about mini disc. Some suggested that 20 years from now only place to find mini disc will be on some Japanese import speciatly shop.

But I'm out jogging today, and I see people still with their cassette tapes. Perhaps the 20th century was about one format, maybe two or three tops.

Perhaps the 21st century will be about lots -- maybe 10- to 20 of formats exisisting side by side. Even dat machines and dat tapes are easily accessabile still, years after the excitement about it died down. And dat never sold as well as MD.

Kevs

[Guest Anonymous]

Tape cassettes and players are dirt cheap and so simple a two-year-old can use them. CD players are going the same route, although the music industry still insists on gouging on the cost of the CD. Same goes for throw away and other cheap cameras. None of these require the investment of hours of fiddling, experimentation and education to use. None require knowledge of PCs and audio equipment. The quality of the recording or picture is secondary to the instant gratification of the medium without having to think much about how you get it. This is what most humans want.

Only a minority of people care enough about the quality of a recording to invest the money and the time and effort in learning how to copy a high-quality recording to a minidisc or CD for that matter. Otherwise, MP3s wouldn't be so popular. If minidisc players drop to $20 and you can copy music to them like you do a cassette, they may become as ubiquitous. I would hope so, but don't hold out for that. CDs will be with us for a long time.

[Guest Anonymous]

Advocate:

Interesting reply. But you know for me copying to minidisc is as easy as copying to cassette. Maybe there was a little more to learn in way of moving tracks etc, but that is all optional. If someone just wants to put a full cd to minidisc, I think it's same as putting it on a cassette.

I think your point about cassettes being cheap is more insightful. Also, of course, billions of pre-recorded and home made cassettes are still out there.

I think if the recording industry had developed mini disc as a pre-recorded product, mini disc would be everywhere.

I agree if mini disc were cheaper, they would also be everywhere.

But, you know, I saw a1/2 page article in NY Times just a year ago saying that minidisc were hotter than ever in it's history, with introduction of the net md thing (which I don't use).