Happy new year, MiniDisc community! With the start of the year comes the start of the 30th anniversary celebration of the very first MiniDisc recorder, the Sony MZ-1! We're very excited to work with the community to celebrate 30 years of this brilliant format.

Before we get to that, a brief list of what's changed since December:

So far, we have a wiki page for organization as well as a #30th-anniversary channel on Discord, where JayTilston has shown us his gorgeous 30th Anniversary pins on Etsy, and we would love to see more creative MiniDisc merchandise.

Ideas

We have a few ideas, and we're looking for more! These are listed on the wiki page in more detail, but so far we would like to plan:

  • A photo contest, especially featuring RZ-1s
  • Disc swaps like our Secret Santa 2021
  • Giveaways like merchandise, discs, or albums

Organization

There is already some momentum with the MiniDisc Day that several record labels have participated in since 2020. It would be ideal to coordinate events and work together to build the most excitement. We're happy to be a “central hub” for others to organize and promote their events, or synchronize our own plans with other leaders in the community.

Outreach

Part of building awareness and excitement is bringing as many people onboard as possible! If you are or know a content creator, podcaster, YouTuber, musician, author, or anyone else who is interested in the format and making something for the 30th, please let us know. The Wiki team is excited to help with promotion, education, and linking to your work.

Promotion

As we begin to organize our own plans and hear from others, we'll be putting updates like new releases, event deadlines, and anything else related to the anniversary right on the homepage. Our social media accounts will also be reposting things as we become aware of them.

Outside of the 30th Anniversary, the wiki itself is still growing, adding new pages and viewers at a good rate. Since the beginning of 2021, monthly site visits have grown from around 200 in Q1 to 2000 in Q4. Thank you to everyone for contributing to and enjoying the resource. There's still a lot to do.

Releases section

Still a thorn in our side, we'd love for the Releases section to be a concise, easy way to see previous and upcoming releases. Even better if we could use it for automated promotion of upcoming releases on the site and social media.

The last 100? equipment pages

We've suspected that there were around 900 unique pieces of MD equipment, maybe as high as 1000. There are definitely far more devices that we do document than don't, but we're going for completion. As always, anything you can add either to an existing page or an entirely new one is greatly appreciated.

Logo & branding

We haven't had luck finding a logo or branding for the wiki yet, so we're open for suggestions or submissions. Please contact us.

Preserving everything

As well as equipment, we want to document brochures, ads, contemporary reviews, and anything else about the MD format that is at risk of being lost to time and failed hard drives. This is a project we haven't put as much time into yet but if you are comfortable with contributing to the wiki we'd love to host any materials you have.

  • about/updates/2022-01-02.txt
  • Last modified: 19 months ago
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