At Wed, 24 Jan 2001 11:29:42 -0500, Greg Clow <greg@stainedproductions.com>
wrote:
quoted 13 lines The main reason that MiniDisc was viewed by many as a "failure" in North>The main reason that MiniDisc was viewed by many as a "failure" in North
>America after it's original introduction in the early '90s was the attempts
>of the record industry to present it as a new pre-recorded music medium.
>Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) was also introduced as in a similar way
>around the same time. But since most people were already in the process
>of
>upgrading from vinyl to CD, they weren't interested. (Not to mention
>the
>fact that none of the major labels were backing both new formats - some
>went with MD, some with DCC - meaning that mainstream music fans would
>have
>to buy TWO new pieces of hardware rather than choosing the format they
>prefered.)
Its a shame that this never caught on here. I have had a minidisc player/recorder
for the last 3 years and have purchased under 20 CDs since, probably one
tenth of the number that I had purchased in the year previous. My opinion
is that it was not only the people that chose not to go with MD, but it
was the influence of the RIAA and such. Case in point: DVD vs. Laserdisk.
The recording industry has not dropped the price on CDs in the last 15
years. MD was expensive at first, but its price has dropped. A premastered
MD costs around 9 dollars at BestBuy or wherever.
Why, if CD media has become so inexpensive: 25 cents or so a disk, whereas
MDs cost about 1 dollar each, haven't CD prices dropped?
quoted 5 lines Thankfully, other markets (like Japan and the UK) recognised MDs real>Thankfully, other markets (like Japan and the UK) recognised MDs real
>usefulness was not as a replacement for CDs, but as a replacement for
>cassettes as a home recording media. I use MD to record vinyl and MP3s
>for
>portable listening, and to record my live DJ sets. It's a good thing.
Here is the cool thing about that. In Japan, you can walk down the street
and see a kiosk into which you place an MD with space left on it. for about
a buck, you can purchase a song listed on a menu and have it put onto your
MD. Pretty sweet, and yet, here in the US, they are just now starting to
do that with MP3s via Crapster etc. What is flawed is that you can download
MP3s via Gnutella or Freenet without charge ever, what is even more flawed
is that people will be stupid enough to buy subscriptions to Napster and
CuteMX or whatever else decides to pop up.
I am new to the list, and usually I tend to lurk for a few weeks to get
the vibe of the people on before I post, but this is a topic I have had
quite a few conversations with my friends. Hopefully I didn't reitterate
anything someone has already stated.
--
genomaly
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