We’ve had the vinyl and cassette revival - is the mini disc the next format to make a comeback (and extract even more money from fans :lol: ).

 

Mark Ronson released one for ‘Late Night Feelings’ which sold out straight away now one has appeared for Sam Fenders new album (also almost sold out) - https://shop.samfender.com/*/Music/Seventee...isc/75JS192B000

 

I’m sure it’s novelty/collectors interest at the moment but will be interesting to see if we get any others joining the mini disc club

At least the mini disc was a decent format, albeit one that never caught on. I’m still baffled by the cassette revival, just why?!!

I have a little bit of nostalgia about minidiscs!

 

I used to have a portable minidisc player (I'm fairly sure it was this one). I also had a DAB radio player (maybe this model) and I could record directly from the radio onto blank minidiscs. As many of us will remember clearly, new songs would be promoted for around 6 weeks or more before they'd be released to buy... so from 2002 to 2004, this was how I'd regularly listen to songs - essentially creating a mixtape of all the current songs I liked. Eventually I got my first iPod on Christmas Day in 2004, and from that point I properly embraced being able to download files... therefore my use for minidiscs died.

 

There were quite a few editing options on a minidiscs which seemed revolutionary to me at that point in time. You could record for maybe an hour, and then you were able to edit it - splitting that recording into individual tracks. You could then reshuffle the order of the tracks. It was certainly an upgrade from cassette recording, and I considered minidiscs to be more useful than CD-Rs.

 

 

In terms of commercially released minidiscs, I never bought any at the time that labels were trying to make them a thing. I'm pretty sure that by the time I owned a minidisc player in 2002, commercial releases had been phased out. I remember seeing minidisc albums in music stores around 1998/1999/2000 sort of time. I was curious about what they were... and I seem to remember they were rather expensive.

 

Many years later I bought some minidisc albums on eBay, for my Spice Girls collection... Spice, Spiceworld, Forever, Schizophonic, Northern Star and Hot were all released on that format. I think they look quite cool!

 

I can see why they ultimately didn't catch on with the public. CDs were widespread, and cheaper, which made them convenient. I can't really think of any particular benefits over CDs that commercially released minidiscs offered. More compact packaging, I suppose.

 

Anyway - how interesting that there's some modern minidisc albums now! I wonder if they'll become more of a thing from now on? Over to you, Kylie/BMG... :lol:

 

 

In terms of redundant formats, I can kind of understand the cassette thing, from a retro/nostalgia point of view - they were a legitimately high selling format, unlike minidiscs. Cassettes were my first format. As a child of the 90s I found them intensely annoying, before I upgraded to CDs (such a revelation!!). So from that perspective, I do find it funny that I occasionally buy modern cassettes to support my faves. I certainly don't play them. :kink:

 

What I understand less is labels attempting to sell them for £10+ - that's really pushing it. It was cute when Kylie - Golden cost £5, but this year Spice Girls sold a cassette single for almost £15?! Cassettes selling somewhat decently has definitely made labels a bit greedy.

 

I wonder why they have appeal to people who may not have even been born when cassettes were phased out - SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo is this year's biggest selling cassette apparently? :lol:

I kind of like the fact that mini disc and even DAT could make a comeback as a collectible produced in low numbers.

 

Re: cassettes - I loved them as a kid however I hate them now unless it’s for part of my Kylie collection. They have just become a chart tool and I’ve ended up with so many due to them being bundled with things I want (for example Bille Eilish sold a CD and 3 cassettes with a sign print, Olivia done a cassette bundle too with a signed print etc.,). I see now more and more artists releasing multiple versions with different sleeves or different coloured cases which kinda takes the fun out of collecting them especially as they are literally a dead format.

I LOVE minidiscs and have 2 players. It's the best ever music format from a practical point of view, for sound and editing and compiling your own playlists. It lacks the nostalgia and physicality of vinyl, which are works of art at their best, but it beats the crap out of cassettes.

I still have a Mini Disc player too, and the Thunderbugs album on the format, as it was the only way they released it :lol: The internal battery on it is completely dead though now, so it only works if it's plugged into the mains.

 

I loved using it at the time as you could record stuff like you could on a cassette player but split the tracks and more easily skip through them, like a CD. We also used to use them when I was at school, I recorded an album of songs I made when I was around 16 onto Mini Disc and still have it laying around.