Latest news with #MP3
Japan Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Unplug and rewind with Thanko Skeleton Portable CD Player
Heading outdoors for a hike or reading a book at a cafe are small ways to relax without relying on a screen for entertainment. Recently, we've seen a return to old-school technology like clunky digital cameras, wired headphones and even CD players. Listening to music on CDs demands more intention. You have to choose the album, buy it and insert it into the player without the temptation of scrolling through an endless digital library. The Thanko Skeleton Portable CD Player SK-25 is a great way to disconnect while enjoying your favorite artist. With its see-through body inspired by 1990s design, it's both nostalgic and fresh. Weighing just 250 grams and powered by a rechargeable battery, it's easy to carry and lasts up to five hours on a charge. It plays standard CDs as well as CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and supports MP3 and WMA formats. You can also load music onto a microSD card (up to 128GB) for even more flexibility. Useful features like A-B repeat, adjustable playback speed, and a 5-level equalizer make it great for language study or exam prep. It includes two headphone jacks so you can listen with a friend, and has anti-skip protection and auto power-off to save battery. Get yours today for ¥5,680 at the website. Source: Thanko © Japan Today
The Star
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
30 years of the MP3: The story of a breakthrough that changed music
ERLANGEN: It turns out the invention of the MP3 format was a combination of vision, overtime and stubbornness – as well as a good dose of luck. Thirty years ago, on July 14, 1995, a new file format called MP3 emerged, aiming no less than to revolutionise the world of music listening and the music business with it. On that day, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in the southern German city of Erlangen decided to give their audio compression invention the file extension ".mp3". Now, audio streaming from similar audio files is everywhere. But 30 years ago, it was the compression technology invented in Erlangen that first made it possible to listen to music on the Internet. The origins of the MP3 project date back to 1982. At the time, the goal was to make music files small enough to transmit in decent quality over a digital telephone line (ISDN). Karlheinz Brandenburg had made this seemingly unsolvable task the subject of his doctoral thesis when he was an electronics student in Erlangen. Used by billions of people Brandenburg was initially unsure about the significance of his research, as one statement from him in 1988 reflects: "Either my dissertation will gather dust in the library, or the technology will become a standard used by millions of people." In fact, the "MPEG Layer-3" (MP3) standard, which he played a key role in developing, has influenced the listening experience of billions of music fans. The development work by Brandenburg and other researchers was intended not only to fundamentally renew broadcasting technology but also to mark the beginning of the end for CDs in the music industry. The success continues to this day: Whether in streaming, digital radio, digital television or video calls like Apple's FaceTime – a form of MP3's successor, AAC, is used everywhere. How does MP3 work? But how was it even possible to significantly reduce the size of music files without making them sound noticeably worse to the human ear? The researchers in Erlangen exploited the fact that the human ear does not perceive many details in music or other complex sounds. Some tones are too quiet or are masked by louder tones. For example, an alarm clock continues to tick even when it rings, but the ticking is no longer heard. When converting to an MP3 file, precisely those parts of the music that humans probably would not hear anyway are removed or simplified. Only what is important for human hearing is retained. A music file can thus shrink to about one-tenth of its original size without the sound becoming noticeably worse for most people. However, music purists, such as Canadian singer Neil Young, dispute this. Newer versions hardly distinguishable from analogue sound MP3 co-inventor Brandenburg can still somewhat understand the criticism of the original MP3. However, he said that the new MP3 codecs, such as AAC, are now so good at higher data rates that the human ear can't distinguish them from analogue sound, such as those from vinyl records. This has also been proven by blind tests with trained listeners. However, it took countless hours of experimentation before the sound of an MP3 file could even remotely compete with that of a CD or vinyl record in the 1990s. Ironically, a record shop in Erlangen was the first to benefit from MP3 research. Brandenburg would bought dozens of records from here. "Simple pieces, complex pieces, music from all genres across the board," Brandenburg recalled in a 2020 newspaper interview. "We didn't know what would work and, more importantly, what wouldn't." As Brandenburg was nearing the completion of his doctoral thesis, he read in an audio trade magazine that the song "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega was often used for sound tests in the hi-fi trade. A colleague quickly got the CD. Experiments with an a cappella version of the song from 1982 were initially sobering: the first attempt with "Tom's Diner" reportedly sounded "as if someone was scratching at your left and right ear," Brandenburg said when the New York singer visited the institute in Erlangen in 2007. The inventor was not deterred by the setback. He listened to the song thousands of times to continuously improve the MP3 algorithm. One solution was to transmit the lower frequencies very precisely – much more so than the higher tones, where storage space could be saved. A cybercriminal aids the breakthrough After the official naming, the format initially took off slowly. The Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen had actually planned to license the software for converting to MP3 to interested entertainment companies. However, a young cybercriminal thwarted this plan: in 1997, an Australian student used a stolen credit card number to purchase the encoder software and made the programme freely available online. Word spread quickly. "Ripping" CDs – converting them into MP3 files – became a popular pastime. The online file-sharing platform Napster caused significant damage to the music industry and artists from 1999 onwards. The software allowed millions of users to easily and freely share their MP3 files with one another. The idea was simple: Napster searched users' hard drives for MP3 files and then facilitated direct exchanges between computers via the Internet. Entire record collections could suddenly be swapped with just a few clicks. Napster effectively made the MP3 format the standard for digital music overnight and ensured its worldwide adoption. Napster not only changed how people consumed music but also forced the music industry to engage with digital distribution channels. The platform demonstrated how simple and appealing the exchange of music in MP3 format could be, paving the way for later legal music services and the digitisation of the entire industry. With the success of the iPod (2001), the iTunes Music Store from 2003 and legal streaming services like Spotify from 2008, the music industry slowly recovered. Who profited financially from MP3? With the emergence of legal MP3 usage scenarios, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) also began to generate revenue. Brandenburg estimates that his then-employer earned €50 to €100 million annually in fees from manufacturers of MP3 players, music platforms and other licensees until the last MP3 patent in the United States expired in 2017. Overall, all technologies surrounding MP3 are said to have generated at least half a billion to €1bil (RM4.9bil) in revenue. Fraunhofer IIS stated that marketing over the entire patent period generated "revenues in the high hundreds of millions." However, the real big business was not made by Fraunhofer but by the commercial users of MP3 technology, including manufacturers of MP3 players such as Apple, Sony, SanDisk, Creative, iRiver and Archos. Apple alone is estimated to have generated US$60 to US$70bil (RM255bil to RM298bil) in revenue and at least US$15bil (RM63.9bil) in profit from the iPod between 2001 and the discontinuation of the product line in 2022. To this day, the iPhone still includes a note that the audio coding technology MPEG Layer-3 was licensed from the Fraunhofer IIS. – dpa
Buzz Feed
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
27 Normal Things From The '90s That Nobody Does Anymore
Believe it or not, the '90s ended 25 years ago. (Yep, that's a fact that never fails to amaze and disgust me.) And of course, everyday life has TOTALLY changed in those in ways we wouldn't even realize. So recently, millennials on Reddit have been answering the question: "What's something that felt normal growing up as a millennial but now seems really strange?" and oh wow, it's really unlocking some memories. So here's what people said: "Calling a girl's house to speak with her and not knowing who would answer. That was a fun one." "No phones for photos. Just actual cameras." "Cash and cheques everywhere (card wasn't accepted in so many places)." "Using school encyclopedias to obtain information." "Tape recording music off the radio..." "Flipping through the channels and waiting all morning on Saturday for the four shows you actually like, only for two of them to play simultaneously on opposing networks with a limited chance for reruns." "Going to the mall with friends to get pictures taken with angelic backgrounds and blurry bad Photoshop on our faces, with over-plucked, over-arched eyebrows and fried straight hair. You know what I'm talking about." "Printing out directions. Also, printing out cheat codes for video games. Growing up we had a binder for all the games we wanted to have cheats for." "Hanging out with 20-year-old guys when we were 15 and 16." "All the shit you had to carry around. Cell phone for calls and texts, Discman (and later MP3 or iPod) for music, and digital camera just for photos." "Knocking on someone's door to see if they can hang out." "Wandering around the mall on a Friday night. Probably seeing a movie." "The music on CD players skipping if the player was bumped." "Never calling adults by their first name." "$5 footlongs. They're up there with the Pyramids, the Moon landing, works of Shakespeare, and the Sistine Chapel. One of humanity's finest achievements." "Going to people's doors so often. I knocked on strangers' doors for fundraising all the time and I can't believe that was allowed, let alone encouraged. Once for a friends birthday, we split in groups and went to strangers' doors for a scavenger hunt ('We're looking for a penny from these years or a non-yellow post-it; can you give us one?'). Now I sometimes knock on doors for political campaign volunteering, but even that makes me nervous and I would not want any child doing that." "'It is now safe to turn off your computer.'" "Just not knowing something. It's hard to explain to my 15-year-old that when I was growing up, if we wondered something, we had to just not know the real answer because we couldn't Google it." "Before YouTube, there was 'call your school friend that had the same game as you and ask how the hell to beat the boss in Super Mario Bros 2.' Those were the days." "Getting home after a long day and seeing, like, five new messages on the answering machine. Then listening to them as you got around the house. I remember this one kid left a rude-toned one saying he was mad at my little brother for not answering the phone that day, LOL." "Phone books are such an alien concept now. I saw a video recently where a bodybuilder ripped a phone book in half. I was more impressed that he somehow had access to a phone book." "Playing outside as kids with no parental supervision. I still think it's so weird you can't do that anymore." "I swear school photos look so different now. For mine, I sat in front of a background and the photographer would keep telling me to move my neck. By the time my brother (Gen Z) started school, it was him standing against a background. The photos I get from my friends who are parents as well are the same, standing against a background." "Buying cigarettes for my mom as a kid like it was no big deal." "A cultural zeitgeist where everyone was watching and listening to the same thing. These days, everyone is either listening to a large mix of everything, or they are all watching different shows at different times. It makes it feel like there is little shared culture anymore." "Just the amount of places you had to go for everything. I got dragged along by my mom to tons of places to do little things that can all be done on an app or through the internet. Like going to the bank to get a money order to take to the cable office to pay for the phone." "Calling your parents collect but then cramming 'heyitsmecomepickmeup' in when it asks for your name so they don't have to pay for the call." Now, on a similar note, tell me: what's something everyone did in the '90s that would totally get you cancelled today? Tell me in this anonymous form, or in the comments below! And for more nostalgic posts like this, follow BuzzFeed Canada on Instagram and TikTok!
Scotsman
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Minidiscs: is the '00s format due a comeback or has it been lost as a millennium relic?
Don't throw those MiniDiscs away just yet - there might be a revival on the horizon Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It was once considered the cutting edge of audio technology and an essential piece of kit for journalists. However, one Apple product later and the format was left in the dust. However, the humble MiniDisc is making a small comeback - but what is the format and who is releasing on it in 2025? Since writing about vinyl, cassette, and video tapes over the past 12 months, there's one format I'm constantly asked about: MiniDiscs . Now, for those who went to university in the early 2000s , you might already be familiar with the format. It was once considered the 'future' of journalism due to its portability, 'easy' editing functions, and ubiquity across radio newsrooms nationwide. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, another format was already making waves just as the MiniDisc was reaching its prime: the old, sometimes infamous MP3 . While MiniDisc was a technological advancement—especially those versatile recorders you could do a lot more than just record music onto—it never quite gained the widespread adoption that its initial hype suggested. But what if I told you it could be the next format on the rise? Or would you just look at those hand-labelled diskettes piled up and think, 'Why bother?' As Generation Z starts to pick up on millennial formats, including the MiniDisc, it might be worth paying attention to it ahead of a potential rebirth. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So, what was/is a MiniDisc, why was it the journalist's 'Swiss Army Knife,' and is anyone still releasing on the format today? What is a MiniDisc? Is the Minidisc the next format to undergo a comeback, or was it's timing during the advent of MP3 players to cause for it's lack of widespread appeal? | Canva So, what even was a MiniDisc, you ask? Well, it was an erasable magneto-optical disc format cooked up by Sony , first hitting the scene in 1992. Think of it as Sony trying to get the best of both worlds: the digital quality and instant track access of a CD, combined with the record-anything freedom of a cassette tape. It was this neat little 2.5-inch (64mm) disc tucked into a tough plastic case, kind of like a tiny, super-fancy floppy disk. These MiniDiscs could hold 60, 74, or even 80 minutes of digital audio. And get this – Sony actually claimed you could re-record onto them up to a million times. For audio, it used Sony's own special compression called ATRAC , which was a way to shrink a CD's massive data down while still trying to sound good. Later versions, like Hi-MD , even let you record uncompressed, CD-quality sound. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Honestly, it was essentially a wild mix of a floppy disk and a CD-R – if you're trying to picture it. Why were MiniDiscs considered the 'future' of journalism? Little bit of a nostalgia trip for me here - as I was one of those who went to University 'all in' with the MiniDisc's functionality. Studying radio journalism as part of a module at University, we were shown the wonder of the MiniDisc editing suite ; imagine those hi-fi stacks with a CD player, a radio tuner and a turntable - now imagine one of the stacks played home to two MiniDiscs. We would record on our personal recorders and edit on them 'on the fly,' or head into the newsroom in order to edit on the larger editing suites with a copy of Audacity or one of the numerous audio editing programmes available. Then we'd record the finished, edited audio back onto a MiniDisc to hand over to the producers. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Needless to say, everything done with cloud storage and various file formats made the process a lot easier - not too shortly after the MiniDisc became the attempted format du jour at the time. The ability to split, combine, move, or delete tracks directly on the portable player was revolutionary for on-the-go editing, allowing for quick assembly of soundbites or cleaning up interviews in the field, and unlike cassettes that could wear out or be eaten by players , MiniDiscs offered a more stable and long-lasting recording medium. Some recorders even allowed you to store data on the discs, becoming (with the correct software) a sort of USB stick or a zip drive , allowing not just audio but crucial information to share the same disc space as your System of a Down recording from their most recent show. How popular was the format upon release? Upon its release in 1992, MiniDisc aimed to be a digital successor to the cassette tape, offering a recordable, portable, and high-quality audio experience. It gained a strong foothold in Japan, where it became quite popular, especially due to CDs being more expensive there and teenagers embracing MD singles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, its popularity was more limited in Western markets like the US and Europe during its initial years. Initial hardware was relatively expensive (original recorders costing around £400), and it faced immediate competition from established formats like CDs and the rapidly emerging digital alternatives. While appreciated by audiophiles, musicians for demo recording, and certainly journalists, it struggled to achieve widespread mainstream consumer adoption compared to the burgeoning CD format for pre-recorded music. It was in the late 1990s and particularly the early 2000s that Sony made a significant push to normalize and broaden the format's appeal. This period saw crucial price drops on MiniDisc players, making them far more accessible to average consumers. Key technological advancements like MDLP (MiniDisc Long Play) , introduced around 2000, allowed discs to hold twice or even four times the recording time. This dramatically increased the format's efficiency and value proposition. Further efforts to integrate MiniDisc into the digital age came with NetMD (late 2001) , enabling faster music transfers from computers via USB, essentially positioning MiniDisc players as early, physical-media-based "MP3 players." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad These '00s innovations and pricing strategies led to MiniDisc achieving its highest level of visibility and moderate mainstream acceptance in Western markets, even if its ultimate decline was already on the horizon due to the upcoming digital revolution. What led to the downfall of the MiniDisc player? Though the format was trying to make waves in Western markets during the '00s, the advent of the iPod left the MiniDisc almost dead-in-the-water. | Canva The MiniDisc player's decline can be attributed to a perfect storm of converging technologies and market forces. Arguably the biggest killer was the rise of MP3s and digital downloads, with devices like the Apple iPod (launched in 2001) offering unparalleled convenience by removing the need for physical media entirely, while file-sharing platforms like Napster further popularized digital audio. At the same time, as CD-R drives became common and blank CD-Rs incredibly cheap, consumers could easily burn their own compilations with uncompressed CD-quality audio using widely available technology. MiniDisc's proprietary nature and DRM (Digital Rights Management) also played a part, with Sony's reliance on its ATRAC codec and the often clunky SonicStage software creating a less user-friendly walled garden experience compared to the simplicity of MP3s. Despite price reductions, MiniDisc players and blank media remained more expensive than CD-Rs and the burgeoning digital alternatives. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Finally, a lack of mainstream record label support for pre-recorded MiniDiscs further limited its appeal to average consumers, preventing it from truly competing with the ubiquitous CD format - though I recall Robbie Williams and Bombfunk MC's both giving the format a go back in the day in HMV. Behind the counter at HMV owing to its price, might I add, but still in the retail store. Are any artists releasing on MiniDisc in 2025? While MiniDisc is no longer a mainstream format, it has found a niche cult following, similar to how cassettes are embraced by certain genres - especially among the noise rock and EDM circles, I can attest . In 2025, you can still find artists releasing music on MiniDisc, though it's typically independent artists or those in genres like vaporwave who appreciate the format's aesthetic and unique physical presence. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For example, Sam Fender released his album "People Watching" on MiniDisc on February 21, 2025, via Polydor. This shows a continued, albeit limited, interest from some mainstream artists or their labels in offering niche physical formats to collectors and dedicated fans. Beyond mainstream acts, independent artists and small labels often use platforms like Bandcamp to sell limited-edition MiniDisc releases, particularly for genres that lean into retro aesthetics or lo-fi sounds. So, while it's not a widespread phenomenon like vinyl's comeback, the format is certainly not entirely dead for new music releases. Did you ever own a MiniDisc player or recorder, or were you a University student who learned how to edit audio on the format? Share your memories before the bandwagon start speeding off by leaving a comment down below.
Scotsman
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Minidiscs: is the '00s format due a comeback or has it been lost as a millennium relic?
Don't throw those MiniDiscs away just yet - there might be a revival on the horizon Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It was once considered the cutting edge of audio technology and an essential piece of kit for journalists. However, one Apple product later and the format was left in the dust. However, the humble MiniDisc is making a small comeback - but what is the format and who is releasing on it in 2025? Since writing about vinyl, cassette, and video tapes over the past 12 months, there's one format I'm constantly asked about: MiniDiscs . Now, for those who went to university in the early 2000s , you might already be familiar with the format. It was once considered the 'future' of journalism due to its portability, 'easy' editing functions, and ubiquity across radio newsrooms nationwide. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, another format was already making waves just as the MiniDisc was reaching its prime: the old, sometimes infamous MP3 . While MiniDisc was a technological advancement—especially those versatile recorders you could do a lot more than just record music onto—it never quite gained the widespread adoption that its initial hype suggested. But what if I told you it could be the next format on the rise? Or would you just look at those hand-labelled diskettes piled up and think, 'Why bother?' As Generation Z starts to pick up on millennial formats, including the MiniDisc, it might be worth paying attention to it ahead of a potential rebirth. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So, what was/is a MiniDisc, why was it the journalist's 'Swiss Army Knife,' and is anyone still releasing on the format today? What is a MiniDisc? Is the Minidisc the next format to undergo a comeback, or was it's timing during the advent of MP3 players to cause for it's lack of widespread appeal? | Canva So, what even was a MiniDisc, you ask? Well, it was an erasable magneto-optical disc format cooked up by Sony , first hitting the scene in 1992. Think of it as Sony trying to get the best of both worlds: the digital quality and instant track access of a CD, combined with the record-anything freedom of a cassette tape. It was this neat little 2.5-inch (64mm) disc tucked into a tough plastic case, kind of like a tiny, super-fancy floppy disk. These MiniDiscs could hold 60, 74, or even 80 minutes of digital audio. And get this – Sony actually claimed you could re-record onto them up to a million times. For audio, it used Sony's own special compression called ATRAC , which was a way to shrink a CD's massive data down while still trying to sound good. Later versions, like Hi-MD , even let you record uncompressed, CD-quality sound. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Honestly, it was essentially a wild mix of a floppy disk and a CD-R – if you're trying to picture it. Why were MiniDiscs considered the 'future' of journalism? Little bit of a nostalgia trip for me here - as I was one of those who went to University 'all in' with the MiniDisc's functionality. Studying radio journalism as part of a module at University, we were shown the wonder of the MiniDisc editing suite ; imagine those hi-fi stacks with a CD player, a radio tuner and a turntable - now imagine one of the stacks played home to two MiniDiscs. We would record on our personal recorders and edit on them 'on the fly,' or head into the newsroom in order to edit on the larger editing suites with a copy of Audacity or one of the numerous audio editing programmes available. Then we'd record the finished, edited audio back onto a MiniDisc to hand over to the producers. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Needless to say, everything done with cloud storage and various file formats made the process a lot easier - not too shortly after the MiniDisc became the attempted format du jour at the time. The ability to split, combine, move, or delete tracks directly on the portable player was revolutionary for on-the-go editing, allowing for quick assembly of soundbites or cleaning up interviews in the field, and unlike cassettes that could wear out or be eaten by players , MiniDiscs offered a more stable and long-lasting recording medium. Some recorders even allowed you to store data on the discs, becoming (with the correct software) a sort of USB stick or a zip drive , allowing not just audio but crucial information to share the same disc space as your System of a Down recording from their most recent show. How popular was the format upon release? Upon its release in 1992, MiniDisc aimed to be a digital successor to the cassette tape, offering a recordable, portable, and high-quality audio experience. It gained a strong foothold in Japan, where it became quite popular, especially due to CDs being more expensive there and teenagers embracing MD singles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, its popularity was more limited in Western markets like the US and Europe during its initial years. Initial hardware was relatively expensive (original recorders costing around £400), and it faced immediate competition from established formats like CDs and the rapidly emerging digital alternatives. While appreciated by audiophiles, musicians for demo recording, and certainly journalists, it struggled to achieve widespread mainstream consumer adoption compared to the burgeoning CD format for pre-recorded music. It was in the late 1990s and particularly the early 2000s that Sony made a significant push to normalize and broaden the format's appeal. This period saw crucial price drops on MiniDisc players, making them far more accessible to average consumers. Key technological advancements like MDLP (MiniDisc Long Play) , introduced around 2000, allowed discs to hold twice or even four times the recording time. This dramatically increased the format's efficiency and value proposition. Further efforts to integrate MiniDisc into the digital age came with NetMD (late 2001) , enabling faster music transfers from computers via USB, essentially positioning MiniDisc players as early, physical-media-based "MP3 players." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad These '00s innovations and pricing strategies led to MiniDisc achieving its highest level of visibility and moderate mainstream acceptance in Western markets, even if its ultimate decline was already on the horizon due to the upcoming digital revolution. What led to the downfall of the MiniDisc player? Though the format was trying to make waves in Western markets during the '00s, the advent of the iPod left the MiniDisc almost dead-in-the-water. | Canva The MiniDisc player's decline can be attributed to a perfect storm of converging technologies and market forces. Arguably the biggest killer was the rise of MP3s and digital downloads, with devices like the Apple iPod (launched in 2001) offering unparalleled convenience by removing the need for physical media entirely, while file-sharing platforms like Napster further popularized digital audio. At the same time, as CD-R drives became common and blank CD-Rs incredibly cheap, consumers could easily burn their own compilations with uncompressed CD-quality audio using widely available technology. MiniDisc's proprietary nature and DRM (Digital Rights Management) also played a part, with Sony's reliance on its ATRAC codec and the often clunky SonicStage software creating a less user-friendly walled garden experience compared to the simplicity of MP3s. Despite price reductions, MiniDisc players and blank media remained more expensive than CD-Rs and the burgeoning digital alternatives. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Finally, a lack of mainstream record label support for pre-recorded MiniDiscs further limited its appeal to average consumers, preventing it from truly competing with the ubiquitous CD format - though I recall Robbie Williams and Bombfunk MC's both giving the format a go back in the day in HMV. Behind the counter at HMV owing to its price, might I add, but still in the retail store. Are any artists releasing on MiniDisc in 2025? While MiniDisc is no longer a mainstream format, it has found a niche cult following, similar to how cassettes are embraced by certain genres - especially among the noise rock and EDM circles, I can attest . In 2025, you can still find artists releasing music on MiniDisc, though it's typically independent artists or those in genres like vaporwave who appreciate the format's aesthetic and unique physical presence. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For example, Sam Fender released his album "People Watching" on MiniDisc on February 21, 2025, via Polydor. This shows a continued, albeit limited, interest from some mainstream artists or their labels in offering niche physical formats to collectors and dedicated fans. Beyond mainstream acts, independent artists and small labels often use platforms like Bandcamp to sell limited-edition MiniDisc releases, particularly for genres that lean into retro aesthetics or lo-fi sounds. So, while it's not a widespread phenomenon like vinyl's comeback, the format is certainly not entirely dead for new music releases.
