Mini discs cost too much...
MD's currently cost me about a buck and a half to 1.70. But I don't have to replace them, because they are virtually indestructible.
Don't know how much I paid when I first started using MDs, but CD's were about 8-10 bucks each, at first.
I'm talking about blanks, of course.
We still buy DVD's and CD's in bulk, but I have no idea the unit cost. And we dupe them for $3+, so they can't be too different from MDs.
Your point about shoplifting is probably right on. And I've never seen a commercial MD with The Beatles or Rolling Stones.
Blanks aren’t where you build a market for a media type, you build it with pre-recorded. VCRs were driven by the movies available, CDs by the music. And MDs had a small selection (which is typical for a new media), and that selection cost a lot more than CDs. While CDs cost more than LPs the big perceived benefit of better sound, MDs never had that over CDs. Without that perceived improvement there’s no driving force for the people to pay more. DAT ran into the same problems, it’s actually a pretty great format, but there’s just no driver for the buyers.