Links for MiniDisc, MP3, CD-R, and CDs

• Sandisk Supplies Lg Electronics With 32mb Multimediacards To Bundle With New Secure Portable Mp3 Audio Players - SanDisk MultiMediaCard Offers Highest Capacity in World's Smallest Removable Flash Memory Card For Secure Portable Internet Audio Players. The new pocket-sized portable digital audio players include two dedicated slots for MultiMediaCards. This provides the portable audio player with storage up to 64MB of near CD quality music for play back equivalent to about 60 minutes. Both models include a worldwide digital FM tuner and a full-function LCD remote controller. Based on a DOS/Windows file structure, both models are designed to provide standard file transfer. [figure 1 MB per minute of music. A song is 3.5 minutes or 3.5 MB. 60 minutes = 60 MB = 17 songs] [For the newest, 160MB cards, two of them: 320 MB = 320 minutes = 91 songs.]
• SanDisk Introduces 64, 80, 96 & 160MB CompactFlash Memory Cards to Support Higher Capacity Demands for New Handheld PCs - Nov. 16, 1998-- SanDisk Corporation announced today that it has increased the capacity of its CompactFlash(tm) (CF(tm)) memory cards to 160MB (megabytes) to offer more capacity for the several new mid-sized Handheld PCs (H/PCs) just introduced with the new Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition operating system (code-named Jupiter). The announcement was made at the Fall COMDEX '98 trade show in Las Vegas, NV, where SanDisk is exhibiting and demonstrating the new CF cards at the SanDisk booth (Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, L-6470) November 16-20. "Microsoft finds CompactFlash cards from SanDisk to be an excellent solution for expanding the storage capacity of mobile computing devices including those based on Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition,'' said Roger Gulrajani, group product manager for Windows CE at Microsoft. ``Using the industry standard ATA interface, CompactFlash memory cards have proven to be very compatible and reliable small memory cards. ''
• MiniDisc Trading Post - check out other people's music libraries.
• Inexpensive MD Blanks at MiniDiscNow - $2.40 per 70-min. disc, as of 12/98
• MiniDisc Community Page - the #1 MD resource.
• Tunes.com - Detailed music information. Your personalized wish list is preserved online. Customized, associative "recommended for your tastes" information. You can buy many albums here.
• allmusic.com - The entire All Music Guide database; more comprehensive than the subset that is integrated with tunes.com. (Do they have audio clips here, like tunes.com?)

The current links on my CD library page point to tunes.com, where you can hear samples and order CDs. I want to re-direct my links to the more complete database at All Music Guide.

Book, the All Music Guide to Rock (be sure to get the one that says "ROCK" in the middle of the cover, not the general music one with country, jazz, and everything but classical). This is only a subset of the allmusic.com database, but it's easier to read, and presents another perspective. It has a pretty good balance of semi-mainstream artists in various rock genres, with fascinating historical articles like the site. AMG = All Music Guide. Available in Tower stores and book stores.

Many CD catalogs are going onto the web. Many semi-mainstream classic vinyl albums are available, but as expensive imports (in the U.S., this means paying $22 rather than $14 for early 70s rock albums). I have the hardcopy catalog "CD International" for $40, but I feel like this was a waste: all the good info is moving onto the web, which supports a much more comprehensive database. Paper doesn't make sense for an international ordering catalog for CDs. _______________________

I wrote:

Thank you again, especially for the Journey, which I have wanted but
haven't been able to find. My CD-finding skills have been improving;

DH wrote:

>I guess I'm spoiled. I have some pretty good indy CD shops near me that
>deal in used, imports, and bootlegs. Any mainstream stuff I generally
>get for $6 - $8 from BMG or Columbia. Actually I'm on a strict diet
>now. I'm not buying much new stuff these days, unless I find something
>reasonably rare.

Really? $6-$8? For once, I'm impressed. *That* is the literal range I
have "insanely" been demanding for mainstream CD prices (as opposed to
$13-$18).