How MP3s And A Random Sound Card May Have Saved Minidiscs
from the the-ability-to-adapt-is-key dept
An interesting story (published in the NY Times, because they hate those of you who don't want to register) about how a small company in Australia created something for a totally different purpose - when combined with Sony's realization of what was going on in the world increased sales of minidisc players to surprising levels. They're now the single largest "portable digital music player" being bought today. What happened was that someone introduced a card with an optical output - and Sony realized this could be useful in transferring MP3s to minidiscs. The rest was history. Maybe it's time to dust off my minidisc player that I very rarely use any more. The fact is the portability and ability to use these small discs were very compelling features. Recording the discs, though, got tiresome. So, I have about 30 minidiscs of music I recorded a few years ago and haven't made any new discs since then.
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