21 years ago...
In 1979, Sony introduced the Sony Walkman Portable Cassette Player. Sony had not merely introduced a new product,
but they had just invented the very idea of personal portable music. Although the Walkman weighed a hefty 390 g (.86 lbs), for the
first time, one's music could be experienced anywhere - on the road, while exercising, or even while trying to catch
a morning class. Sure, you had portable radios, but with the Walkman the music was personal; a DJ wasn't
choosing the tracks anymore. In those 21 years, we have seen a lot of changes in the world including political events
such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, to more personal changes such as the advent of the music CD and the
Internet Revolution. I don't think I need to say anything about how much music has changed! In those 21 years, the world
of portable music has changed just as radically. Portable music was born with this machineToday's Technology
Two of the hottest digital technologies today for portable music are MP3 and MiniDisc. Unless you've been living in a cave these last few years, you've certainly heard the word MP3 before. At its core,
MP3 is nothing more than an audio compression format - a complicated mathematical formula that allows one to reduce
the amount of data required to store music. However, this compression of data is exactly what allows
MP3s to thrive on the Internet; with the compression anyone can download music tracks in only
a few minutes. Today's portable MP3 music players are designed to take the compressed music from
your computer and place them into a unit smaller and lighter than a deck of playing cards.
The MiniDisc, introduced in 1992, offers discs smaller than even a 3.5" floppy disk
and is a strong competitor to MP3 portable music. Unlike MP3s, which were developed as a mathematical
algorithm, the MiniDisc format was developed as Sony's chosen successor to the cassette tape. MiniDisc
not only provides higher quality than cassette tapes but also is smaller, lighter, and more
convenient than the original Walkman with CD-like track navigation and the ability to title the
tracks. Combining its own compression algorithm (called ATRAC) and incredibly versatile
hardware, the MiniDisc has become an unbelievable success overseas, and with recent price drops in
the US, MiniDisc is finally gaining popularity on local shores almost a decade after its launch.
Ready?
Both MP3s and MiniDiscs seem to offer a portable music solution that's not only high
quality, but also more convenient than older formats. So is MP3 or MiniDisc a better format
for you? Well, first, we'll have to take a closer look at both technologies.
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