     the minidisc (md) is an obsolete magneto-optical disc-based data storage device for 74 minutes and, later, 80 minutes, of digitized audio or 1 gigabyte of hi-md data. the sony brand audio players were on the market from september 1992 until march 2013. minidisc was announced by sony in september 1992 and released that november for sale in japan and in december in europe, canada, the usa and other countries .sony history retrieved 19 september 2009 the music format was originally based exclusively on atrac audio data compression, but the option of linear pcm digital recording was later introduced to attain audio quality comparable to that of a compact disc. minidiscs were very popular in japan but made a limited impact elsewhere.music on the move: minidisc sony announced they would cease development of md devices, with last of the players to be sold by march 2013. == market history == in 1983, just a year after the introduction of the compact disc, immink and braat presented the first experiments with erasable magneto-optical compact discs during the 73rd aes convention in eindhoven. it took, however, almost ten years before their idea was commercialized. sony's minidisc was one of two rival digital systems, introduced in 1992, that were both targeted as a replacement for the philips analog cassette audio tape system: the other was digital compact cassette (dcc), created by philips and matsushita. sony had originally intended for [[digital audio tape|digit
1992_introductions Audio_storage Consumer_electronics Digital_audio Discontinued_media_formats History_of_radio Sony_products