Mini CD
CD with a smaller diameter and one third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc
Mini CDs, or pocket CDs, are CDs with a smaller diameter and one-third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc.
Formats
Amongst the various formats are the
Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD singles in certain regions (singles are sold on normal 120 mm CDs in many countries), much like the old vinyl single. An 80 mm disc can hold up to 24 minutes of music, or 210 MiB (210 × 220 bytes) of data. They are often referred to as Maxi CDs in some countries.
The low density version holds 18 minutes, or 155 MB.
Other formats are 185 MB (21 mins), which has the same data density as a 650 MB full-sized CD, and 210 MB (24 mins), with the same data density as a 700 MB full-sized CD, used for "Pocket" data storage. (see also miniDVD)
Business card CD (or "b-card"), a truncated (to the shape and size of a business card) disc with a storage capacity from 30 MB to 100 MB.
The long axis is 80 mm while the short axis (from flat side to flat side) is generally between 58 and 68 mm
The disc may be rectangular with wings added on, to square off the rounded 80 mm disc.
60 mm disc, a round version of the business card, with comparable capacity (50 MB)
In 1997, Dean Procter of Imaginet was offering business card sized rectangular CDs with full screen hi-fi stereo video which played in quad speed CD-ROM or DVD drives with the centre well. A variety of laser cut shapes were developed.
When Mini CDs were first introduced in the United States, they were initially marketed as CD3, in reference to their approximate size in inches; larger CDs were called CD5, despite the fact that both CD specifications are defined solely in terms of metric units.
The public source identifies “Mini CD” as cD with a smaller diameter and one third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mini, smaller and diameter.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mini CD”, the useful work is to connect “cD with a smaller diameter and one third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1325794. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mini CD” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.