Within the early 2000s, there have been critical efforts to search out the subsequent technological breakthrough that will succeed the CD. One of these was the DataPlay, a miniaturized model of a CD with a 32mm diameter. Why use DataPlay as a substitute of CD? For one, it may retailer extra than simply music—artist interviews, music movies, and pre-recorded songs may very well be accessed when related to a PC. It was additionally lovely tiny, or as The New York Instances put it, “in regards to the dimension of the ing within the heart of a CD.”

After successful the CES Greatest of Present award in 2001, the DataPlay was launched in 2002 and was rapidly backed by artists and recording studios resulting from its strict digital rights administration system. Britney Spears’ album Britney and re-releases from ‘N Sync, Pink, Usher, OutKast, Sarah McLachlan, and Brooks & Dunn had been included within the first batch of DataPlay discs.

Ultimately, DataPlay failed and is now an all-but-forgotten format. It was too costly, pressured homeowners to buy new music gamers, and locked down content material in a means clients weren’t used to on the time. It additionally arrived in the course of the progress of digital media.

Gizmodo had a sense DataPlay wouldn’t achieve success:

Let’s see, they’ll price greater than CDs, be troublesome to repeat, sound about the identical as CDs, and require a complete new participant (of which just one is out there, the iRiver IDP-100, pictured at proper). Positive to be an enormous hit.