MiniDisc players are much smaller and more portable than CD or cassette tape players.
A MiniDisc player is a device that plays MiniDiscs, a portable music and data storage medium much like a CD, only smaller. It has many advantages over CD and cassette tape players, merging the best traits of both. Despite this, few really picked up the technology, at least in the United States.
Beginning
The MiniDisc format first appeared on the market in 1992. Sony released the technology in an attempt to provide the next generation format to succeed cassette tapes. Like tapes, MiniDiscs could be recorded and re-recorded, giving them a leg up over CDs. They were also smaller, a trait that carried an advantage in portability but a disadvantage in storage capacity. By using a compressed format, however, they could store as much music as a CD, only at a slightly lower quality.
Success in Japan
In Japan at the time, prices of CDs were much higher than in the United States. Because of these high prices, there was a demand for a recordable format with similar quality and track-skipping abilities as a CD. In addition, many Japanese individuals had enough income that they were willing to buy new gadgets. MiniDisc players were the perfect fit, and MiniDisc sales took off in the Japanese market.
Less Success in the United States
In the United States, MiniDisc players were not met with the same enthusiasm. American consumers were less willing to spend the money to jump on board with a new technology, and mostly stuck with cassette tape players. As the 90's rolled on, other recordable technologies appeared, such as CD-R and CD-RW. With many options, all of them costing more than good old tried-and-true tapes, MiniDisc did not stand out as a good choice.
Obsolete
As the new millennium came around, the first MP3 players came into the market. Over the course of the next decade, more and more people stopped using tapes, discs or any other kind of recordable unit in favor of simply loading their files onto a portable music player. Despite improvements in MiniDisc technology, the format could not compete. MP3 players have more or less taken over the portable music market.
Tags: United States, cassette tape, cassette tape players, MiniDisc players, portable music, tape players, MiniDisc players were
