Is MiniDisc still made?
No. Sony announced on 1 February 2013 that it would cease shipment of all MiniDisc devices, with the last players sold in March 2013, and on 23 January 2025 announced it would end production of recordable MiniDisc media in February 2025. Both the hardware and the blank discs are discontinued.
The two dates that end the format
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 1992 | Sony announces the MiniDisc. |
| November 1992 | Released for sale in Japan; December in Europe, North America and elsewhere. |
| 2004 | Hi-MD introduced: 1 GB discs, the ability to act as a USB drive, and uncompressed PCM recording alongside ATRAC3. |
| March 2011 | Sony has sold 22 million MiniDisc players. |
| 1 February 2013 | Sony issues a press release stating it will cease shipment of all MD devices, with the last players sold in March 2013. |
| 23 January 2025 | Sony announces it will end production of recordable MD media in February 2025. |
Those are the two that matter. Hardware production ended more than a decade ago; blank media outlived it by twelve years and then stopped too. Anything sold as new MiniDisc equipment now is old stock.
What a live retail search returns instead
The citable measurement: we pulled every in-stock US retailer listing whose title contains "minidisc" or "mini disc" on 1 September 2026. 39 listings matched, and not one of them was a MiniDisc player, recorder or blank disc.
| What the listings actually were | Count |
|---|---|
| Jewellery — disc pendants, stud earrings, disc necklaces | 25 |
| Abrasives — sanding discs, mini disc brushes, cut-off wheels | 4 |
| Disc golf sets and marker cones | 3 |
| Homeware, apparel and one textbook that mentions the format | 5 |
| A replacement battery for a discontinued MiniDisc player | 1 |
| MiniDisc players, recorders or blank discs | 0 |
| Total matched | 39 |
Method: live US retailer product feeds, in-stock only, keyword pull on "minidisc" and "mini disc", de-duplicated by retailer and title, pulled 1 September 2026. Categories are assigned from the listing titles; a few listings fall into more than one, so the rows do not sum exactly to the total.
The single most telling row is the battery. A replacement cell for a Kenwood MiniDisc unit is in stock; the unit it powers is not. That is the shape of a format in its service tail rather than in production.
Keep identifying →
The format, from 1992 to 2025
- What it was: a magneto-optical disc in a shuttered cartridge, recordable, re-recordable and skip-resistant, aimed squarely at the recordable-cassette market rather than at the CD.
- What it did well: recording. It was the last consumer format where making your own disc, in real time, with track marks and titles, was the point rather than an afterthought.
- Hi-MD, 2004: a genuine technical advance — a gigabyte per disc, USB mass storage, and uncompressed PCM recording — arriving at the moment flash memory made the whole category redundant.
- Why it ended: the same reason as every other removable-media music format. The thing it was good at, carrying an hour of music you had chosen, stopped being a problem that needed solving.
If you still want one
- Buy from resale, not retail. No mainstream retailer stocks the hardware, and our pull is the evidence.
- Recorders are worth more than players, because recording was the point of the format and the recording models are the scarcer half.
- Blank media is now a finite supply. Production ended in February 2025, so the stock in circulation is all there will be.
- Check the battery type before buying. Many portables use proprietary gum cells; a unit whose cell type is unobtainable is a display piece.
- Hi-MD discs and standard MDs are not interchangeable in every direction. Confirm which the unit takes before buying media for it.
Last verified 1 September 2026 against Sony's announced dates for the end of device shipment and of recordable media production, plus a live pull of 39 in-stock US listings matching the term minidisc on the date shown
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Frequently asked
Is MiniDisc still made?
No. Sony announced on 1 February 2013 that it would cease shipment of all MiniDisc devices, with the last players sold in March 2013, and announced on 23 January 2025 that recordable MiniDisc media production would end in February 2025.
When did Sony stop making MiniDisc players?
The press release came on 1 February 2013 and the last players were sold in March 2013.
Can you still buy blank MiniDiscs?
Only existing stock. Production of recordable MD media ended in February 2025, so what is in circulation is now a finite supply.
Do retailers still sell MiniDisc equipment?
Not in the feeds we can see. Of 39 live in-stock US listings matching the term on 1 September 2026, none was a player, recorder or blank disc — they were jewellery, abrasives, disc-golf sets and one replacement battery.
How many MiniDisc players were sold?
Sony had sold 22 million MiniDisc players by March 2011.
What was Hi-MD?
A 2004 development of the format offering 1 GB discs, USB mass-storage operation and uncompressed PCM recording alongside ATRAC3.
Sources
- MiniDisc — the September 1992 announcement and November 1992 Japanese release, the 1 February 2013 press release ceasing shipment of all MD devices with the last players sold in March 2013, the 23 January 2025 announcement ending recordable MD media production in February 2025, the 22 million players sold by March 2011, and the 2004 Hi-MD specification.
- Listing counts and categories: live US retailer product feeds, in-stock only, pulled 1 September 2026 during this run.
- Images by Evan-Amos, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.