[Editorial] Are you ready for the comeback of the MiniDisc?

The Minidisc (MD) format, officially launched by Sony in 1992, was a magneto-optical digital medium that replaced both the DAT and the Compact Cassette, and allowed music to be recorded digitally - via ATRAC compression coding (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding, a kind of MP3) - on a disk contained in a fairly small rigid plastic case (7x7cm), which could store 145 MB of data. Thanks to the ATRAC compression, about 80 minutes of audio could be recorded, the equivalent of a CD. Production ended in the spring of 2013.

Its end was decreed by the advent of other more convenient solutions, such as MP3 players/recorders and, in some ways, even CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Today we can record on memory cards with enormous capacities (1 TB and more), even high-resolution audio, so imagine if a medium that contains just 145 MB of data could be interesting! Not to mention the fact that thanks to the servers of various streaming services we can access an unlimited music library, anytime, anywhere.

However, as much as some audio media may seem anachronistic, in recent years we have witnessed - and I have told you about several of these attempts - a return, or rather regurgitation, of compact cassettes, Stereo 8 and 78 rpm discs, without forgetting that the LP has never really gone away. While the interest in 78 rpm discs makes sense, so much so that we dedicate an entire column of our site to them, given that there are no modern reissues of many historical recordings, what sense could there ever be in a long-awaited return of the MiniDisc? Obviously no one, but someone these days has launched an online petition, on Change.org, entitled Bring Back the Minidisc: A New Life for a Unique Format. It is supported by a whole series of reasons that I consider absolutely questionable or, better, ridiculous. If you fancy, you can read the motivations on the page linked here on Change.org.

What drives these enthusiasts to ask for a revival of a lame medium like the MiniDisc is beyond me. There are better, more practical, efficient and inexpensive systems today to record and preserve music, why resort to something intrinsically worse? Moreover, just in these last months Sony has decided to stop producing recordable Blu-Rays, therefore the reintroduction of the MiniDisc, in this situation, seems quite difficult or let's say impossible. Do not forget that Sony had already abandoned the production of SACD, another dead format.

Personally I love (and own!) objects from the past, such as cars, watches, audio components and even gramophones but I can't understand the charm of the different audio formats. Beyond the desire for the physical medium that gives us a tactile and visual experience, I don't see what other reason could exist. And, as far as tactile and visual experience goes, nothing will ever beat a vinyl record, which, by the way, often sounds good too.

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May 2025 Editorial

Old and dismissed audio supports...unite!