Hello MD friends, it's time for another of our community updates and we have a lot of exciting stuff to cover! In this update:

• Web MiniDisc Pro app updates and features
• Our experiences meeting with community members and fans at 100% Electronicon 3
• New buyer's guide
• The final stretch before our 30th anniversary event on November 1st
• The 30th Anniversary mix swap event

Some of you may be here for the first time because of a recent video demonstrating Web MiniDisc Pro and some of its features. Lead developer asivery has already detailed the new features in version 1.3 in another Reddit post, but in brief the most exciting features are ATRAC downloads to PC even on Type-R portables, and external ATRAC3 encoders for LP-mode recordings as good as SonicStage. It's an amazing time to be using NetMD and development is still moving rapidly.

The documentation for Web MiniDisc Pro has been updated for the latest version and covers all the features extensively.

As a lot of you already know, there is a big overlap between MiniDisc and several internet music scenes (synthwave, vaporwave, and future funk) - it's these scenes who are releasing new albums on MD and bringing a whole new audience to the format. Another admin and myself traveled to New York to meet with artists, record labels, and fans to answer questions, promote the format and community, generate interest for new releases, give out merchandise, and listen to the music (of course!)

Between the tape swap and the main event, we met so many amazing people curious about MD, answered their questions, took notes on the stumbling blocks for newcomers, and built some great relationships with artists and record labels. There are too many names to list, but I'm sure you know who you are!

Both the music scene and the MiniDisc community are so welcoming and helpful to newcomers. We're blessed to be a part of both and love helping bridge these communities.

In response to what we heard from prospective MD fans at Electronicon, and from some other forces in the community, we've started a much more comprehensive MiniDisc Buyer's Guide for more information on what to buy and what to watch out for.

This guide isn't a replacement for the Getting Started guide, but it compliments it with more example devices (and more to come) broken down by era and type. Please help us expand it with your examples and findings!

November 1st is almost here and we're starting to put together all of the pieces for our event such as reaching out to record labels and organizing giveaways. Unfortunately, some of the groups we've been trying to work with haven't shown the same level of interest or respect for this community so we're doing everything we can to make up for this and bring together MD fans from across the world to appreciate 30 years of this format. Please reach out to us if you want to be involved or have your MD-related projects be featured and promoted.

Speaking of 30th Anniversary events…

Most of the discs for our 30th Anniversary, 1992-and-earlier themed swap are now delivered! 35 mix discs have been sent thousands of miles around the world between members of the community. Thanks to everyone who has taken part, shared your arrivals on the Subreddit and Discord server, and added Wiki pages with your discs. Can't wait to listen to all of them and get in that “1992 new tech” mood.

The Secret Santa swap is still open for signup until November 1st and we already have more signups than the 30th swap!