Question about 8cm Discs...
 

So before 2000 there was this 8cm discs right? I.ve only know about Singles being release, I.ve never seen and album and I was wondering are there albums in 8cm discs? or how were they release? were they released 2 discs for albums? or how they did it? how much can an 8cm cd hold? I mean were they like mini albums I dunno?

anyone has pictures?

arigatou.

I see.. so.. back then how were albums dones in japan I mean...

normal discs. 12 CM i think.

They only used 8 CM for singles.

8cm didn't have enough space for albums.

I think it was more cost effective to do a 8cm sized single, then a 12cm album..

Since 8cm was cheaper or w/e..

I see.. So later it was standardized all CDs to 12cm right?

Well,I was curious that why the 8cm blank CD-R is more expensive than 12cm Blank CD-R...:thud
But I've collected few 8cm Blank CD-R~:lech

Maybe that's now? lol

I wouldn't know.. but they could sell the 8cms for a lot cheaper than the 12cms[right?]

I think it's just aesthetics, to be honest. I don´t know why Avex eventually quit producing the 8cm/3" discs, but I can't imagine that cost was a (major) consideration.

That said, these discs are still widely used, especially in the more unconventional genres. A Dutch artist, Machinefabriek, releases all his music on 8cm discs, with all of them containing some 20 minutes of music. It's in this ambient/noise/drone genre that the format is quite popular. Note that these aren't considered albums, but EPs, which goes for practically anything released on 8cm.

Shiina Ringo released her Zecchoushuu on 3 8cm discs. It's officially a single release; all 3 discs have 3 songs, though they only amount for some 30 minutes of music, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway, aesthetics.

I think they were cheaper when produced in high amounts, since they didn't need as much material as they need for 12 cm discs. Also, when Compact Discs first appeared, I believe they were considerably expensive and the smaller, 8 cm ones were a cheaper solution.

But since they're not used recently, especially for home purposes - becouse of small capacity, the 8cm CD-Rs are harder to get and more pricey...

As for Ayu, the first single she released in 12 cm was Boys&girls, which was a maxi single, so they did need more space on the disc, thus the bigger ones. That might have been the time when 12 cm discs were already affordable and 8 cm discs were slowly limited in production, so they began switching to bigger discs completly.

8cm discs are so cute 8D

When Compact Discs first appeared - that was 1982. Production prices weren't really an issue in 1998 anymore.

Well then I don't know why...

very interesting!... puffy as well released an 8cm CD for their latest best collection... as a bonus.

Aesthetics, I'd think. You might also say gimmick.

8cm discs have only 21 minutes of capacity, so i certainly dont hope an album is on a 8cm cd. and a 8cm cd can have problems with car cd players, the kind that sucks the disc in....so i am glad they dont use it anymore

Yes, that is a bit of a pity, but I always burn a bunch of 8cm discs onto one CD-R if I want to be able to play them in the car. I wish people would use them more often actually (though I have quite a few); I quite like the format myself.

could 8cm CDs be somekind of anti-piracy scheme?

I know Nintendo Gamecube uses some type of 8cm discs to counter piracy.

I think Gamecube just uses the miniDVD disc.. [1.3GB of space.]

And 8cm CDs easily fit into a PC CD-tray, so I don't think piracy had to do with it.

^ yeah , I know gamecube doesn't use 8 cm CDs. I meant like it uses somekind of 8cm DVDs.

I think in the past record companies have tried to come up with a alternative format for audio than the regular CD-format for audio. like the minidisk (which failed outside Asia tho). I beleive part of the reason has been trying to counter piratism.

it maybe a bit of a strech to assume 8cm CD is somekind of anti-piracy thing, since the format is just so unconvinient lol . tho it's not like it would be the most stupidest anti-piracy scheme ever ( remember the rootkit-program scandal with Sony? lol)

Are the 8cm discs the 3" ones?

Yes!... I just looked for it cause I dunno much about inches lol

:laugh

Thanx :D

They look nice but are much more expensive than a normal CD. I even got a player for them, it was about half a year before first mp3 players came out. I wanted a mobile player that could play mp3 files but wasn't as big as a normal cd player so I found and bought this one. Unfortunately, it's heavy, doesn't have anything to stick it into belt and was too thick to put it into pocket. The battery also didn't last for long. As soon as I learnt about mp3 players I bought one and the minidisc went to the drawer. Haven't seen it for years ^^

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7540/minixa6.th.jpg

yeah mp3 players are a lot more versatile and lightweight. i havent used my cd walkman and my MD walkman for years!

^ sure they are. I wonder when people will switch from CDs to those small memory cards :P after all, they're much smaller, they don't get damaged so easy (scratches on CDs can couse a lot of trouble) and they can hold more data, not to mention they're completly rewriteable. Although they're probably still more expensive than regular CDs... which is too bad. Can you imagine albums released od memory cards?? :P

You still have one of those? They're adorable :P

I got like 30 of them left ;)

I meant the player, not the disc... or do you really have 30 more players like that one? :P

no -_- one player, 30 minidiscs

like I thought ;)