Disc pricing

This page is meant to serve as a scratch pad for information showing mindiscs pricing over time, to one day be condensed down into a readible story with graphs showing how md sales/prices changed over time.

US Market:

Stereo-Review-1994-03 - page 96/97 list some sony / tdk md pricing of that time.

Stereo-Review-1995-03 - starting on page 76 lists MD prices from Fuji (MD-Z 74min $19.95, MZ-Z 60min $16.95), JVC (MD74V 74min $13.99, MD60V 60min $11.99), Maxell (MD-74RM $21.49, MD-60RM $16.89), Sony (74min $16.99, 60min $13.99), TDK (MD-XG 74min $17.49, MD-XG 60min $13.99).

https://web.archive.org/web/20050207224254/http://www.macnn.com/feature.php?id=147 -last comment 10/2000 “Sony would never make a product to compete with their Memory Stick line. 140MB for $2.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20000929172636/http://www.kheopsminidisc.com/Minidisc.htm -2000~ era etail pricing.

https://web.archive.org/web/20031019021318/http://home.earthlink.net/~mac-minidisc/ - 2003 80 minute blanks $1.90~

A Comprehensive Recording Media Review - Circa October 2000 by Terry Friedman - mentions roughly when md's became ~$2 a disc

https://archive.org/details/Circuit-City-Ad-2001-04-29/page/n5/mode/2up

http://www.minidisc.org/part_future.html

http://www.minidisc.org/md_survive1.html

http://www.minidisc.org/md_survive2.html “ 60 minute blank MD's…at $13.99 a piece”, $2 (or less) minidiscs may 2000

https://www.minidisc.org/balzers_interview.html - discusses production costs of md's a bit “How many blanks are produced, worldwide? In 1997, 120 million blanks were produced, in 1998, 200 million.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20021206175843/http://www.datastorage.unaxis.com/en/os3121_sprinter.htm - manufacturer of disc manufacturing equipment, combined with the interview(s) above paints a picture of the progression in md disc manufacturing and estimated cost per disc. Well worth reading the brief descriptions of each machine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070814062052/http://members.rol.ch/ruby/sprinterx.html - a how it works from 01/1997. includes animations of the sputtering machines operation

Opticaldiscsystems article

News about a disc producer exiting the market and early production numbers

https://sites.google.com/view/crazyforminidisc/home-page

EU Market:

UK Market: https://web.archive.org/web/20020204213451/http://www.tapecity.co.uk/acatalog/TapeCity_Emtec_MD74_32.html £0.67 per when buying 20

https://web.archive.org/web/20011121215314/http://www.tapecity.co.uk/acatalog/TapeCity_Sony_Mini_Discs_4.html https://web.archive.org/web/20020204213845/http://www.tapecity.co.uk/acatalog/TapeCity_TDK_Mini_Discs_9.html - go through the archive for different models/pricing over time.

JP Market:

https://mevius.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/av/1580655383/#0189 post 0189 says in the early 2000's a 10 pack was 1000 yen.

http://www.puwa-net.com/minidisc/supplise/blankdisc/hi-quality.htm MDW74Z (MD2000) msrp 2,800 yen, average sale price 2480 yen. PRMD-74 1840 yen (pre tax).

https://www.clarion.com/jp/ja/files/report/2004_CarAudio_NavigationReport.pdf

https://www.sony.com/ja/SonyInfo/News/Press_Archive/200106/01-037/ by the end of 2001, a cumulative total of approximately 54 million MD hardware units (according to Sony research) have been sold worldwide. In addition, the market size of MD media for recording is expected to reach 270 million sheets / year (according to a survey by the Japan Recording Media Industry Association).

Rare sites with disc catalogs/info: http://justified.com/md/ - gave up and sent his info to: https://web.archive.org/web/20040605061330/http://t-station.net/md_blanks.html

UNIT PRICING

https://web.archive.org/web/20010814115430/https://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?791 - mid 2000 MD players were outsellingf CD and MP3 players.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000919065348if_/http://members.tripod.com:80/~psych/ - JAVASCRIPT SEISURE WARNING https://web.archive.org/web/20010824203049/http://psych.tripod.com/about.html https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2004/01/09/business/sony-md-to-record-45-hours-of-music/ - Written in 2004: “Sony introduced the MD in 1992 as the first digital recordable audio. According to the company officials, total shipments of MD products since then, including those by other companies, will reach some 80 million units by the end of March.” https://ultimatepopculture.fandom.com/wiki/MiniDisc - Until March 2011 Sony has sold 22 million MD players.[4] (https://web.archive.org/web/20110711122254/http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110707D07JFN01.htm)

https://web.archive.org/web/20090307174321/http://www.iris.ne.jp/cgraph/hyperjack/HYPERPLmd/ Sony MZ-R900-S shipped from japan to US for US$373 in 1999

hi-md $7 price from PC Magazinepc_magazine_oct_2005_hi-md.png

  • discs/pricing.txt
  • Last modified: 10 days ago
  • by jdub