Well, this is something for me to cry about. It appears multiple outlets are reporting the imminent death of the MiniDisc format. Sony is laying off a load of workers, and with them goes the MD technology. At least, that is what is being rumored at the moment.

As much as I've hated the software (with it's death already imminent), I was willing to put up with it because of the recording capabilities and what not. At this point I'll either try grabbing one of the new MD devices on the cheap which support MP3, or bite the bullet and use a different device for playing back tunes. I'll still keep an MD device around for recording purposes as there is really nothing that beats it. In either event, this will provide the impetus for me to ditch the ATRAC format.