Price of Minidiscs in Australia? 37
Luke Butcher asks: "I recently moved back to Australia and I'm appalled at the price of blank Minidiscs, here. In the UK they range to about £1 per disc and the US about $1.60 This equates in both cases to roughly AU$3. Over here the cheapest I can find them is $4.50 and average prices are $5-6. I have tried to get blanks sent from the US and UK from several online sites only to find them not able to deliver to Oz, when they can quite happily ship DVDs and the like. I have done some searching and am unable to find anything explaining this "phenomenon", other than it looks like a blatant price fixing situation. I can find no reason why consumer demand would play a part, I wouldn't mind betting all such discs are produced in Asia, so this also rules out transport costs. Perhaps someone out there can provide an explanation as to why we in Australia pay more than double the normal cost blanks."
Tax on blank media? (Score:2, Informative)
Err, wrong. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Australia has no blank media tax.
Go back to Canada.
Re: (Score:1)
i've seen them for $1 aus (Score:2, Informative)
Minidisc just isn't popular in Australia (Score:2)
Re:Minidisc just isn't popular in Australia (Score:2)
Re:Minidisc just isn't popular in Australia (Score:1)
The only real advantage minidisc has is size. The disadvantages are numerous - lack of people with players, lossy, expensive.
Yes - being expensive when there are other cheaper alternatives tends to mean that the more expensive alternative stays expensive, unless it has huge advantages.
Re:Minidisc just isn't popular in Australia (Score:2)
Lack of people with players isn't really such a problem for recordable media. And in quite a few parts of the world, they're not *all* that expensive.
"lossy" is relative (Score:1)
Indeed, ATRAC is a lossy compression format, but it is superior to mp3 and a few others, although there are no doubt people who disagree, people who agree, people who think that only CD quality is acceptable and others who think CD is too crisp and that vinyl is king. You can't win.
Marking "lossy" as a reason for the supposed cost of MDs doesn't address it. It's certainly no worse than high bitrate mp3.
Re:"lossy" is relative (Score:2)
Some more info here [tripod.com].
Re:Because the format is fucking unpopular! (Score:2)
Re:Because the format is fucking unpopular! (Score:2)
Re:Because the format is fucking unpopular! (Score:2)
For example, in certain suburbs you would be able to spot MD players without trying (along with high end phones etc).
Re:Bullshit back at you. (Score:2)
Jump on a train in Melbourne, open YOUR eyes and you WILL see lots of minidisc players. Yes a lot of them are "rich asian kids" but a lot of them aren't. I know lots of people in my age group (13-19) who own MDs.
You're still wrong. (Score:2)
I also travel into the CBD each morning and out of it each night via the train, and get around on foot and on trams during the day. (All inside Zone 1, so don't push any of your "cheap suburb" crap onto me).
Almost no-one has Mini-disc players.
The majority of people that are listening to portable music have either CD players, tape players, or tiny radios.
Look, I don't care about your high school age friend and what they happen to be using to listen to music (even though I'm still just inside the age bracket you mentioned). I don't care if three or four of your friends happen to have Mini-disc players, because they are not everyone in Australia.
There is virtually no demand for mini-discs here, because no one uses them. If you'd like to show me otherwise, come to the next Slashdot Meetup [meetup.com] and show me some Mini-disc users. Although I've missed the last two meetups due to picking up people from airports for nodermeets [everything2.com], and because of being at work a few hours too long, I'll be at the next one. Really. I'm sure...
Easy (Score:1, Interesting)
Everything technological is more expensive here. For example the laptop I just bought, in the US i could have a dvd/cdr (instead of just cd) and double the HDD, double the ram. For about US$300 less then in Australia (I converted properly). Plus the laptops are made in indonesia.
The market in australia is not as big, not as technological (only about 1 in 40 IT students have a laptop) and therefore stuff is more expensive.
Re:Easy (Score:1)
As an Australian IT student, I can tell you that most students don't have them because of the cost. It's not that we aren't as technological, it's just hat we dislike being ripped off.
Besides, I find I can do all my work either on my desktop system here at home, or in the labs at uni with no problems.
Re:Easy (Score:1)
About the only thing I think we're behind with is broadband, but that's due to a moronic government going nuts with the largest telco in the country.
Minidiscs are a monopolised technology (Score:1)
I'd rather have an MP3/OGG player than a minidisc player. Even a CD player and a CD burner.
Just a thought... Does the US call them minidiscs or minidisks? If so, that might be your problem... Different spellings in different countries.
Re:Minidiscs are a monopolised technology (Score:2)
So would I, but there just aren't any practical options at the moment, which is why I'm still using Minidisc. My digital music is all in Ogg format, so an MP3 player isn't really an option (given that I don't want to have to reencode it all). There are currently no portable Ogg players. Also, with Minidisc, I can carry 10 disc around with me, to get lots of hours of music when I'm on the move. With MP3/ogg, the cost of compact flash, smartmedia, memory stick or whatever generally makes that prohibitively expensive. The only alternative is to get a player with a hard drive built in, which is more expensive and loses you many of the benefits of portable digital players (no moving parts, light weight, etc.). In a few years time, I expect to have a portable digital player. But for now, I'll stick with Minidisc.
Where are you looking? (Score:2)
I Think It's A Southern Hemisphere Thing... (Score:1)
You think the price for MiniDiscs is exorbitant in Oz? You oughta try buying a decent tech mag in Nigeria or Cameroun. .net Magazine is available in the UK for £ 4.49 an issue; I bought my last copy from the newspaper vendor for the equivalent of £ 16 an issue. Accessories and reading material -- it's scalper's prices all the way out here. Sigh!
So. I feel your pain....maybe you oughta switch to CD-RW or CD-Rs instead.