Editing MiniDisc (section)

== Market history ==
In 1983, just a year after the introduction of the [[compact disc]], [[Kees Schouhamer Immink]] and [[Joseph Braat]] presented the first experiments with erasable [[magneto-optical]] compact discs during the 73rd [[Audio Engineering Society|AES]] Convention in [[Eindhoven]].<ref>{{Cite journal
|journal=J. Audio Eng. Soc.
|volume=32
|date=1984
|title=Experiments Toward an Erasable Compact Disc
|author=K. Schouhamer Immink and J. Braat
|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237764745
|pages=531–538
}}</ref> It took almost 10 years, however, before their idea was commercialized.

Sony's MiniDisc was one of two rival digital systems introduced in 1992 that were intended to replace the [[Philips]] [[Compact Cassette]] analog audio tape system: the other was the [[Digital Compact Cassette]] (DCC), created by [[Philips]] and [[Panasonic Corporation|Matsushita]] (now Panasonic). Sony had originally intended the [[Digital Audio Tape]] (DAT) to be the dominant home digital audio recording format, replacing the analog cassette. Because of technical delays, the DAT was not launched until 1989, and by then the [[U.S. dollar]] had fallen so far against the [[yen]] that the introductory DAT machine Sony had intended to market for about $400 in the late 1980s then had to retail for $800 or even $1,000 to break even, putting it out of reach of most users.

Relegating DAT to professional use, Sony set to work to come up with a simpler, more economical digital home format. By the time Sony came up with the MiniDisc in late 1992, Philips had introduced a competing system, DCC, on a magnetic tape cassette. This created marketing confusion very similar to the [[Videotape format war|videocassette format war]] of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sony licensed MD technology to other manufacturers, with [[JVC]], [[Sharp Corporation|Sharp]], [[Pioneer Corporation|Pioneer]], [[Panasonic]] and others producing their own MD products. However, non-Sony machines were not widely available in North America, and companies such as [[Technics (brand)|Technics]] and [[Radio Shack]] tended to promote DCC instead.
[[File:Pioneer MiniDisc car receiver MEM-P5500 crop.JPG|thumb|Pioneer MiniDisc [[vehicle audio|car receiver]]]]
Despite having a loyal customer base largely of musicians and audio enthusiasts,{{fact|date=September 2023}} the MiniDisc met with only limited success in the United States. It was very popular in Japan and parts of Asia, and relatively so in Europe during the 1990s and into the 2000s, but did not enjoy comparable sales success in other markets. Since then, recordable CDs, [[flash memory]] and HDD and solid-state-based [[digital audio player]]s such as [[iPod]]s have become increasingly popular as playback devices.

The slow uptake of MiniDisc was attributed to the small number of pre-recorded albums available on MD, because relatively few record labels embraced the format. The initial high cost of equipment and blank media was also a factor. Additionally, home MiniDisc decks were less widely available, with most consumers instead connecting a portable MD device to their hi-fi system in order to record.

MiniDisc technology was faced with new competition from the recordable compact disc ([[CD-R]]) when it became more affordable to consumers beginning around 1996. Initially, Sony believed that it would take around a decade for CD-R prices to become affordable – the cost of a typical blank CD-R disc was around $12 in 1994 – but CD-R prices fell much more rapidly than envisioned, to the point where CD-R blanks sank below $1 per disc by the late 1990s, compared to at least $2 for the cheapest 80-minute MiniDisc blanks.

The biggest competition for MiniDisc came with the emergence of [[MP3 players]]. With the [[Rio PMP300|Diamond Rio player]] in 1998 and the [[Apple iPod]] in 2001, the mass market began to eschew physical media in favor of more convenient file-based systems.

[[File:Sony mz rh1.jpg|thumb|Sony Hi-MD Recorder MZ-RH1, released 2006]]
By 2007, because of the waning popularity of the format and the increasing popularity of solid-state MP3 players, Sony was producing only one model, the [[Hi-MD]] MZ-RH1, available as the MZ-M200 in North America packaged with a Sony microphone and limited [[macOS]] software support.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.minidisc.org/manuals/sony/Sony_MZ-RH1_user_manual.pdf|title=Sony MZ-RH1 User Manual}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://reviews.cnet.com/minidisc-players/sony-mz-m200-hi/1707-6492_7-32780518.html|title=Sony MZ-M200 Hi-MD Recorder with Stereo Microphone|website=[[CNET]]|date=5 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=MZRH1&upd_id=2236&os_id=24|title=Hi-MD Music Transfer for Mac Ver.2.0|publisher=Sony|date=15 July 2006}}</ref>

The MZ-RH1 allowed users to freely move uncompressed digital recordings back and forth from the MiniDisc to a computer without the copyright protection limitations previously imposed upon the NetMD series. This allowed the MiniDisc to better compete with HD recorders and MP3 players. However, most pro users like broadcasters and news reporters had already abandoned MiniDisc in favor of solid-state recorders, because of their extended recording time, open digital content sharing, high-quality digital recording capabilities and reliable, lightweight design.

On 7 July 2011, Sony announced that it would no longer ship MiniDisc Walkman products as of September 2011,<ref name="Nni20110707D07JFN01"/> effectively killing the format.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/sep/24/sony-minidisc-20-years|title=MiniDisc, The Forgotten Format|publisher=The Guardian UK|date=24 September 2012 |first1=Joey |last1=Faulkner |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230604004940/https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/sep/24/sony-minidisc-20-years |archive-date= Jun 4, 2023 }}</ref>

On 1 February 2013, Sony issued a press release on the Nikkei stock exchange that it would cease shipment of all MD devices, with last of the players to be sold in March 2013. However, it would continue to sell blank discs and offer repair services.<ref name="sony-end">{{cite news|
url=http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20130131D3Z01N02.htm|
title=Sony To End Shipments of MiniDisc Players|
accessdate=4 February 2013|
newspaper=The Nikkei
}}</ref> Other manufacturers continued to release MiniDisc players long after Sony stopped, with [[TEAC Corporation|TEAC]] & [[TASCAM]] producing new decks up until 2020 when both its consumer and professional products, TEAC MD-70CD and TASCAM MD-CD1MKIII, were discontinued.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://s-mars.co.jp/end_of_md_deck/|title = Mdデッキ生産の終息について |website=株式会社 松本無線音響設備 |date= 2020-01-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625090500/http://s-mars.co.jp/end_of_md_deck/ |archive-date= Jun 25, 2023 }}</ref> In January 2025 Sony announced, that production of blank MiniDiscs (together [[Blu-ray Disc recordable|BD-R]] and [[MiniDV]]) will be discontinued.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Sony no longer produces BD-R, MiniDiscs and MiniDV |last=Ernst |first=Nico |date=2025-01-25 |url=https://www.heise.de/en/news/Sony-no-longer-produces-BD-R-MiniDiscs-and-MiniDV-10256695.html |website=heise.de}}</ref>