Sony has announced that it will stop making its MiniDisc players in March 2013.

The Japanese electronics giant will cease production of the MiniDisc player next month, but it has said it will continue making the actual MiniDiscs, The Telegraph reports. The news marks the end for the audio system, which was launched by Sony in 1992 as a high-quality digital alternative to the much lower-quality tape cassette.

On their launch, MiniDisc players were seen as the future for audio equipment and Sony claimed the discs would be safe from risk of degradation for 30 years. As the players were recordable, they became popular with sound engineers and media professionals.

However, with the advent of MP3 players such as Apple’s iPod and cloud-based streaming services, the Minidisc has struggled to compete in the market and its demise has been on the cards for some time – Sony previously stopped making portable players in 2011.