HitClips - The truth behind the toy

HitClips - a fun toy? A terrible music format? A way to sell music to kids too young to venture into record stores? The answer is YES. This video sorts the facts from the fiction.
00:00 The Start
02:16 A closer look
04:18 Fixing the facts
10:43 The Yahoo Downloader
12:02 Bring the Noise
13:37 HitClips Discs
17:16 There’s no business like...
19:43 That’s a wrap
21:24 Credits (audio by HitClips)
HitClips on ebay (affiliated link) ebay.to/2FVC27W
An earlier take on this idea was Pocket Rockers - here’s my video about that one • Pocket Rockers - 1980...
UPDATED INFORMATION
It turns out the HitClips Disc player will play a cart if a blanking plate is removed from the device and the cart is slid in from the bottom (upside down to the orientation of the discs). Thanks to a couple of viewers who spotted this.
Here’s a website article about reverse engineering a HitClip ch00ftech.com/2013/12/31/reve...
Hitclips TV Commercials on youtube
• Tiger Hit Clips™ Comme...
• Video
• Britney Spears McDonal...
• Hit Clips Commercial
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---------Outro Music----------
Over Time - Vibe Tracks • Over Time - Vibe Track...
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All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
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[@Techmoan]

Next - things moved on to Video with VideoNow kzbin.info/www/bejne/rovVm4yinrKbnLM

[@theclipsposter]

Videonow was a real pile of junk

[@guanoApe]

Just the format is really interesting

[@KevReillyUK]

"Somewhere between zero and not enough," is one of the greatest phrases I have ever heard. As someone whose team is regularly required to produce miracles with chronically underfunded technology, I'm planning to steal this and make extensive use of it at "wash-up meetings."

[@Techmoan]

You have my permission to overuse it and I really really hope it makes your meetings a bit more bearable.

[@jackburton8352]

Or you could make stuff that's not even good enough to be shit.

[@RebornAudio]

Okay, cheers for that Kev 👍🏼

[@KevReillyUK]

@@ApemanMonkey Actually I don't, but now I'm intrigued that I might have a namesake whose experiences worryingly mirror mine. Maybe some names are just cursed. 😉

[@ApaceLp]

I died when he flipped over the disc to reveal that they aren't optical discs at all, just the same cartridge in a round shape.

[@BillAnt]

Surprise-surprise! lol

[@nvrndingsmmr]

@Sciurus Niger That's hilariously pedantic. You're right, but lol!!

[@mikelisteral7863]

nowadays you can buy a 1TB micro sd card

[@AugustusBohn0]

@@mikelisteral7863 imagine today's data density on something the size of a hit clip cartridge, I imagine it could get up above 6tb

[@mikelisteral7863]

@@AugustusBohn0 micro sd card could go even higher if their was a demand for it.

[@fortunamajor7239]

god I remember being 8 years old, sitting with my friends at the playground huddled around this one girl who had the boombox style hit clips player, all of us straining to hear a fuzzy britney spears song, and thinking it was the coolest shit ever 😂

[@GuitarGuy5000000000]

I have that exact same memory, word for word! Lol. This scene probably played out at school's across the globe back then.

[@ChristAcolyte]

@@GuitarGuy5000000000 and by globe you mean first world countries (mainly the US)

[@GuitarGuy5000000000]

@@ChristAcolyte These were sold worldwide. Lots of countries with kids/parents to market to. No, they probably weren't as globally popular as Beanie Babies or Tamagotchi, but HitClips definitely had their brief moment, as noted by Techmoan in the video. I had an NSYNC one. Thought I was so cool with it as a seven year old 😆. I didn't live in the USA either.

[@nom3nnescio]

@@GuitarGuy5000000000 well, from finland here and this is first time ever I see this. so no. not worldwide across the globe.

[@nom3nnescio]

@@GuitarGuy5000000000 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitClips and if you look wikipedia theres Page only in English.. so..

[@YusufNasihi]

"I need to fly under the copyright radar." With such poor audio quality, I don't think you'll have any issues.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Thank you! It's like listening to the music filtered through a 30 year old cassette tape recording of an Edison phonograph cylinder.

[@Xeotroid]

KZbin claimed the song on this thing even after it being compressed down to 8 kb/s apparently. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6SkpqqBn5qJj7s

[@queenbiscuit311]

@@Xeotroid ._.

[@PunakiviAddikti]

@@Xeotroid You have GOT to be joking. KZbin actually spent god knows how many thousands of dollars to make an AI so advanced that it can copyright claim songs that are compressed so much I'm surprised they haven't created a black hole yet. What a fucking waste of time and money. It's like making an electron microscope that has an AI in it and when you put something in it, it analyzes the structure of the item and tells you what *color* it is.

[@DuckReconMajor]

I've had all types of stuff claimed for "uses this song's melody", including (IRL in the background) karaoke tracks and even MIDI songs in a Doom WAD

[@XFolf]

The audio quality is like AM radio, out in the country, and on a car radio from the 70s.

[@eatmedrinkme9628]

Hey man, those 70's radios sounded awesome, it was the speakers that were shit. :D

[@queenbiscuit311]

The radio station isn't SUPPOSED to reach out this far, but it's night time so you can just barely hear it

[@douglasparkinson4123]

recorded onto the worlds cheapest cassette, which has had a low strength magnet ran over it.

[@reaperreaper5098]

It’s more like a dying Victrola playing the music off of a cat.

[@TheAugust8]

I saw the Tiger logo and immediately understood everything about this device.

[@delayedplayer]

Tiger electronics? The one that AVGN covered about their trashy game hand-helds?

[@TheAugust8]

@@delayedplayer Yep.

[@hotsauwz]

he is gonna take you back to the past.

[@hgrunt100]

I saw the logo and literally thought it was going to be a joke in the video. Like a slow zoom onto that tiger logo with vietnam clips ghosted in the background. Tiger explains it all.

[@primaroxas]

Techmoan: *zooms in on the tiger logo Me: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

[@Adaani13]

Definitely remember my cousin having a whole keychain cluster of the music cartridges and like three different players. Visiting one summer in like 2003 and listening to them while she complained about middle school. It feels like it was so long ago, but we still talk about them fondly and with great nostalgia

[@Retguard]

The "bluetooth, on the ear" looking one would have been pretty insane had they found a way to fit full albums onto those little things. Put the device on your ear, slap in an album, and go along your day? In 2000-2004 that would have been pretty damn amazing to just carry around albums in your pocket that you can hot swap at any time.

[@EVRLYNMedia]

its called a hit clip because the songs audio level is clipping all the time

[@andrewdewar8159]

Laughed !

[@wasd____]

Was gonna say it's called a hit clip because it takes hit songs and clips them hideously, but you beat me to it :D

[@cybercoltz9054]

Yeah it was a shit excuse for a "music player". But that's all I can afford when I was 10 yrs old in 2000.

[@plateoshrimp9685]

That early 2000s digital crunch really adds a lot of warmth. You really need the audiophile Hit Clips with cryogenically aligned gold plating to get the most out of it though.

[@Sam-go3mb]

The Shenzhen toxic-plastic coating really opens up the dynamic range.

[@Slobezero]

I think one of the reasons that kids were more receptive to these was that the clip-on design allowed them to skirt around school regulations in regards to what you couldn't bring to school. Full cassette players or CD players would be confiscated if you got caught, but things that clip on to your backpack were usually okay (as long as you didn't get caught messing with them.) So Tiger capitalized on this.

[@ems901]

That’s a good theory

[@m1k3l1f3]

Very true. In my school players were banned for the longest time. At least for listening to in class.

[@ct1660]

In my case, as I am the original owner to a HitClips sports boombox, I just thought it was super cool to have a portable format with your favorite tunes! Mine was bought new in 2001 at K-Mart for $14.99 which had a pack-in cartridge. I also got another cartridge for $3.99 for “I Want It That Way”.

[@alexanderwhite8320]

I doubt these were available in North Korea where personal music devices are banned in schools.

[@gx2music]

That’s really interesting… I was wondering why the heck kids fell for this when we already had far better formers.

[@cysioland]

The quality of the sound reminds me of the music on hold.

[@douglasparkinson4123]

the reason hold music is so bad is really quite interesting. id reccomend looking into it

[@cysioland]

@@douglasparkinson4123 yeah, basically strong lossy compression, just like in here

[@kian8382]

"I can be your hero bab..." No you can't, not with that sound quality.

[@MrJ0mmy]

sound like the 12kbps amr audio format that old nokia phones would record to when making a voice recording

[@kian8382]

@@MrJ0mmy It probably is just that.

An awful song played with a pitiful bit rate through questionable headphones. Yay.

[@krzysztofczarnecki8238]

At this bitrate only headphones that do not work will sound better

[@singeslayer8367]

I just recently bought new headphones and let me tell you, those 11 seconds of hitclips audio actually caused a weird sensation in my jaw and teeth

[@youtubeistyrannical1787]

Your display picture is perfect

[@cat1554]

Which ones?

[@klausstock8020]

I actually thought that that Techmoan should have advertised this video as "sponsored by your dentist".

[@ErectedGasCan]

I got one as a child for christmas when i was around ten years old, it still works on the original battery.

[@ErectedGasCan]

Christmas 2020 update: Found the hitclip of mine, tried it out, and Usher still sounds as "clear" as back in the year i got the gadget, in 2001. How the hell that battery still functions is bloody mindblowing.

[@elysian5624]

Hows the battery in 2022?

[@1x4]

All of mine still work too. The cd player and boombox

[@koilamaoh4238]

Thats kinda crazy these things still work in 2022.

[@ErectedGasCan]

@@koilamaoh4238 Yeah i cannot understand how it still works, i have a clip of Usher on my HitClips so he is clearly immortal 😂

[@SuperFrankieOSX]

Imagine the KZbin censors actually being able to recognize the music through that horrible audio quality.

[@DuckReconMajor]

I replied to another comment, but they'll flag hard-to-hear background music and even MIDI songs as "uses this song's melody"

[@SuperFrankieOSX]

@@DuckReconMajor wow, so it's gotten pretty good huh?

[@SuperFrankieOSX]

@@DuckReconMajor and by "good" I mean ridiculously overpowered

[@DuckReconMajor]

@@SuperFrankieOSX yeah it's the 'let AI run rampant then pick up the pieces later' method

[@Flanponos]

@@DuckReconMajor youtube is cyberdyne/skynet confirmed

[@sebastiannielsen]

15:48 it looks like the disc player is backwards compatible with the original hitclips, but not the other way around. Do you see the inserted-cartridge-indentation in the cover, and the blue "tab" thing covering a cardridge-slot looking hole in the cover? It seems that the disc pinout is upside down from the cardridges point of view, and that the blue tab (where your thumb is pointing at) can be removed, then the case being closed, and then a normal hitclip can be inserted in a disc player. Basically, you slide out that blue "tab thing" to reveal a cartridge-slot in the disc player, close the cover, and then insert the normal hitclip into the bottom of the player. Propably the discs are actually electrically compatible with the original hitclip players too - but remember - the pinout is upside down, meaning that you can't insert a disc like a normal cartridge, you actually have to place the disc "upside down" relative to a cartridge.

[@Techmoan]

@Sebastian Nielsen Good spot - you’re 100% correct. I’ve just gone back and had a look and yes the bottom of the disc player will pull out and the card fits in and plays. So thanks for correcting me on this. I’ll pin your comment at the top as a correction to the video - and I’ll update the description too. Thanks again.

[@sebastiannielsen]

@@Techmoan Yeah, now when you know how the pinout of the disc is relative to the pinout to the cartridges, you should now be able to play the disc in your disassembled player. You just need to turn the hitclip contacts 180 degrees, since the "outer edge of disc" is the same edge as the "keychain back edge" of the hitclips, electrically seen.

[@aronpill2767]

@@Techmoan Since you have already gutted an original hitclip "catridge player" (15:52), could you try to play a "hitclip cd" by putting it backwards? If they can produce sound, that would be amazing! Taking into consideration the "Yahoo Downloader" recorder cartridge (10:50) already recorded up to 2 minutes, that would mean that there was NOTHING new in those CD/players, and the whole thing was just an strategy to make the older players obsolete. (Showing that Tiger's goal was to sell the players as much as the media itself)

[@Kalvinjj]

@@joesshows6793 I wonder if it even is a file, if it's not just downright TTL (transistor-transistor logic for the unfamiliar, basically just connecting ICs inside a circuit, in a gross oversimplification). At 1st I thought it could be some horrible sample rate and bit depth PCM but it might just be simpler than that even, on the same level as talking toys.

[@magnets1000]

Can't believe everything you hear on the internet 😂

[@thecianinator]

This guy comes straight out and says "I'm too old to remember hit clips but here's a bunch of stuff you didn't know about them anyway" 😆 You are the best, TechMoan!

[@TheFatestPat]

I remember when I was a kid back in the early 90's, the idea of a tiny boombox was really cool. So it looks like they managed to bring that to life in way through these hit clips.

[@hwtvi3466]

Lol. Nowadays, tiny boomboxes are pretty much everywhere, with portable Bluetooth speakers and all.

[@JohnZombi88]

Oh God no they didn't lol.

[@HighguyMcfly]

I loved hit clips when I was a kid, they where my first sort of MP3 player, granted the headphones where uncomfortale the cord was short and the hit clips only played about 1 minute of a song, something about it just felt cool and trendy. That's what hit clips where all about, it wasn't about the actual function of the device, it was about collecting all the cool songs and looking like you had something cool so all your friends would think you where cool then go out and buy it.

[@boingkster]

Sounds cool!

[@ThisUploaded]

"here's 11 seconds that will make your teeth vibrate" That line shook me to my core. I could not have imagined a worse visual lol.

[@UnReaLgeek]

I have never been happier to be interrupted by a Raid: Shady Business ad

[@combatking0]

I think that 11 seconds gave me cavities. Somehow.

[@lisachiappetti6092]

At least it won't make your teeth grow gray 😉 lol I'm not sorry at all for that reference

[@toddslater6656]

There is quite possibly one "pre-recorded music format" that was worse than hit clips; Tooth Tunes were singles sold on toothbrushes which played via bone conduction while you used them to brush your teeth. Having had experience with both Hit Clips and Tooth Tunes as a kid, I can say from personal experience that listening to the same Black Eyed Peas song on a toothbrush every day was at least slightly worse than listening to NSYNC over and over on a Hit Clip.

[@Techmoan]

I do have a one of these with We Will Rock You on it - although I’d consider it more of a novelty than a way to sell music, but yes it did sound worse than this, even in my hollow head.

[@icychill105]

i had the same tooth tunes and i liked it, i dont exactly remember how it sounded but it kept me brushing. i also had a friend with hit clips and it was bad back then too

[@AnEverydayGamer]

Oh god i remember the commercials from 2007. Wanted one back then.

[@startedtech]

@@Techmoan I had one of those back as a kid! It was cool but it certainly didn't make me brush my teeth more often.

[@EpicB]

@@AnEverydayGamer I remember seeing ads for those too. I had at least one electric toothbrush when I was younger but I never wanted one that played Miley Cyrus or whatever came on those. I'm pretty sure there was a Miley one.

[@CharlieRAnimaMX]

12:33 I don't know if there are also in other countries, (I suppose there are), but in Mexico there are some generic or Chinese brands of "bluethooth speakers" that use a few seconds of "A thousand miles" or "over the horizon" (Samsung) in a very compressed form as a "intro tone" when turning on, and it sounds exactly same.

[@barbara_rocas]

I loved my HitClip Boombox. I also had the radio scanner for it. I will never forget the day I was playing around with it at 8 years old and found a screamo radio station, it was the funniest thing hearing that playing from the tiny little player lol

[@demonking86420]

"people were getting their MP3s by different means" like Napster

[@aaronevans4660]

And Kazza

[@pickeljarsforhillary102]

Limewire.

[@ROOTZDNB]

BearShare.

[@flemardo]

eDonkey/eMule, AudioGalaxy, Gnutella, Scour Exchange

[@DaveFlash]

@@aaronevans4660 you mean KaZaA!

[@OneEightZero180]

"It's mono, but let's move on..." Almost got me again.

[@purplegill10]

What's the joke? I missed it

[@jonbourgoin182]

Imagine being so invested in this that you actually went and edited the Wikipedia article after watching this video.

[@quintonashley5745]

glad someone did!

[@slicked9778]

I remember the mcdonalds stuff so clearly. I remember my mom taking me to mcdonalds before taking me to a friends house and I also remember listening to a hitclip at his house. At the time that stuff was mind-blowing to me being 10 years old because of the size and how cool the product was. It's crazy to think how far we've come from cassettes to digital streaming services.

[@dungeonseeker3087]

"Somewhere between zero and not enough" made me laugh way more than it should have done.

[@russellrawling274]

I had a 1970s fisher price record player that sounded better then that shit!

[@FranLab]

Typical retail markup for this kind of product is 60% over wholesale, and the actual return on these kinds of products over production /distribution /advertising costs is very small. 10% of retail sales would be a very generous net profit estimate.

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

So, instead of that 80 million, we're looking at more like 8 million?

[@DrewNorthup]

@@johnruschmeyer5769 Depending on how much they paid in taxes and royalties, something like that.

[@hadireg]

good to know! Thanks Fran! 👍

[@sonicase]

we all know you have a huge stash of hillary duff hitclips fran

[@dittikke]

@@sonicase That's a serious allegation sonicase, anything to back that up?

[@TransistorBased]

Oh lord, the 'Downloader' name reminds me of when my sister was in 2nd or 3rd grade and had my mom's old flip phone. She'd hold it up to the car speakers and record the radio so she could 'download' music.

[@clockworkNate]

I remember hating these when I was a kid, seemed like the only kid that didn't like the fact they didn't play the whole song lol

[@Celestial7Heavens]

That sounds like a total rip-off! Pay so much for a sample that is the equivalent to a 30 second sample on iTunes from the 2000s.

[@daisydaisy0121]

Same here. I had a friend who had one. I instantly realized what a rip off the commercials were. It was worse audio than what you’d get from a baby doll

[@ems901]

Ya I never seen why kids were so satisfied with just a clip of a song. Makes no sense.

[@kennyfication88]

Oh boy, I sure remember these. It was the early 2000's, can't exactly remember when, but my brother got his first MP3 player. He was about 14/15 back then and delivered newspapers, so he was able to afford it. I was around 7/8 and didn't receive any pocket money, but I wanted an MP3 player so badly. Well, it was my birthday and I received a bit of money from family members, but it wasn't enough to buy a proper Mp3 player. I saw the commercials on TV for the HitClips player and asked my mum to get one. My brother and her tried to convince me not to buy it because it just sucks, bit I didn't care - If I had to save up money to get a MP3 player, it would have taken about a year or more to save it, but I had barely enough to buy a hitclips player, so I did. I had survivor by Destiny's Child, and only that cartridge because my local toy shop didn't have any more songs to sell (we lived in a smaller, rural area). I used my hitclips player for about a year, listening to Survivor approx. 40 to 50 times a day (not kidding) and I was so damn proud to finally get my own music player! On my next years birthday I got a proper MP3 player and just threw the hitclips player in the bin :D

[@kennyfication88]

@@Chris-rg6nmYep, 40 times a day for approx a year. Of course, on some days I didn't listen at all, but I couldn't get enough of this mircale called hitclip, even though I didn't like the song very much. Yes, CD players were a thing, but I didn't have any money and my parents just did not buy any CDs since they only listened to the radio. Don't forget, I was 7 or 8 years old back then, I had to take what was available. Since I got my MP3 player a year later, things changed.

[@JaredConnell]

Listening to destiny's child hundreds of times a week for a year? Boy you sure are a survivor!

[@EpicB]

@@kennyfication88 I had an iPod Touch when I was like 13 and I had an MP3 player sometime before that (I no longer have either; I would have held on to the MP3 player if it still worked) and I had some backup of my mom's iTunes library. So I had the White Album and The Fame Monster. If only I knew at the time Master of Puppets was also in there.

[@kennyfication88]

@@JaredConnell I just listened to that song (obviously not on the hitclip) - I still can't hear it anymore to this day :D

[@elasticxplastic]

I had a very similar experience but with “Stronger” by Britney Spears. Almost like torture listening to that for a whole bus ride. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and went back to listening to the radio.

[@andrewchapman2039]

Gotta love the dedication of a man to correct minor details about an obscure product line that basically about three human beings total currently care about.

[@markjames8664]

As of right now, 23 thousand people now care!

[@ThomasVye]

These passed me by completely, but I don’t think that the sound is too bad for their size and simplicity. They have a fascinating look.

[@Mostlyharmless1985]

"Okay, so stay with me on this...What if, we sold phone hold music to kids?" --A Tiger Executive, probably.

[@DrewNorthup]

@@Hansengineering Don't forget the 300 Hz high-pass that's in there as well… (Takes out the sound of the muscles in your hand & arm doing their thing while you hold onto the old-school handset. Cell phones fix that problem differently.)

[@jestermgee]

"Oh, you've joined me while I was listening to Hillary Duff... No i'm not, it's not even switched on, that would be annoying." Burn...

[@PixelTVBR]

Over here in Brazil, a clothing store called C&A made a clone of it. It came with brazilian pop songs from KLB and Rouge.

[@TheGamerWithMore]

18:22 "contains one song edited to one minute and features FM quality sound" "FM quality sound" haha.

[@klausstock8020]

They must have been talking about FM subcarrier audio ("SCA"). kzbin.info/www/bejne/pX3GnXSPhq-fedE Well - no; even 92kHz subcarrier audio is far superior. But at least it's also in mono, just like HitClips! You might check the FM spectrum to compare regular stereo FM (occupying a 53kHz range) against subcarrier audio (occupying a, hm, 10kHz, maybe 12kHz range, with a signal level of only 10%): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RDS_vs_DirectBand_FM-spectrum2.svg Just for comparison: DirectBand offered a (digital) bandwidth of 12kbit/s.

[@DiceRobo]

Techmoan can fix everything *tape motors *CD gears *history

[@supra107]

And the 8-Bit Guy can destroy an incredibly rare prototype by his sheer incompetency. :)

[@lewiskafe4940]

@@supra107 Source?

[@supra107]

@@lewiskafe4940 Check his recent video on Computer Reset finds.

[@supra107]

@@notahotshot He disabled them because he can't handle such an amount of criticism. People that disable comments do it because they are pussies, and prefer to close themselves is an echo chamber.

[@pineappleroad]

@@supra107 him putting it a paperclip across two pins on the power supply?

[@DEFGI]

The recording of the outro makes it sound like the music you hear when someone puts you on hold during a phone call

[@richkawaiipikachu]

Probably the same technology.

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

... down a mineshaft... in a sock.

[@jdraven0890]

Reminds me also of trying to broadcast our church band music over Zoom.

[@TravisTev]

As poor as it sounds, I'd say HitClips at least sounds a lot better than the hold music played over a cell phone speaker. In that case, the call centers may as well play white noise instead, because that's what their “music” sounds like, except that pure white noise is actually more pleasant to listen to.

[@JDCALDECOTT]

Death of these was really down to the iPod, I remember these in school, then suddenly everyone had iPods!

[@potatosordfighter666]

By 2004 the iPod mini had come out, and sold like 10 million units. Hit clips was never going to have a market segment after the iPod took off

[@scout8145]

I can see one benefit to the HitClips discs-they’re the perfect size to give your toys a “working” record collection. If they had sold it as “Barbie’s new CD player really works, and plays licensed music,” I bet they could have been a little more successful the second time around

[@roboftherock]

Techmoan's built-in cynicism really stands out in this report.

[@HarryMudd]

Yeah, it does, doesn't it 🤣

[@Pug8]

I kind of love it even though I briefly enjoyed hitclips

[@TheCheat420]

"Oh you like these little things? Here's why they're fucking stupid." Lol

[@12Q46HPRN]

"Here's 11 seconds that will make your teeth vibrate." -Best line ever! Love the outro music recorded on the HitClips player!

[@williamkucharski934]

"Getting the Six Million Dollar Man to ride down stairs on Evil Knievel's stunt bike." - my childhood in one sentence! 😁

[@dustymax56]

This is so nostalgic that I started smelling crayons and textbooks and school bus seats half way through. My brain really hasn't heard these bitcrushed sounds since early middle school.

[@JessHull]

hahah I love how the outro is in horrible hitclip conversion quality.

[@KayvonJavid]

It makes KZbin's compression sound good!

[@jason_a_smith_gb]

I could see the appeal of collecting songs this way, but 1min? A CD single could cost 99p-£1.99 back in the day. (Got: The Tide Is High CD lol)

[@tylerbrunton7696]

Was looking for a comment about this...

[@CerinAmroth]

I really like your picture, anything about rains feels soothing

[@JessHull]

@@CerinAmroth thank you!

[@BobBob-qg4lo]

“This ones still in its packaging, let’s rectify that issue”

[@laurenrae1542]

Lyrics for the song at 12:02, if anyone's wondering: *odd vocalisations* *guitar riff* Always be where you are Makin' my way downtown *b-boom* I don't know NOW THIS IS RAYVON AND SHAGGY Doesn't matter where I go If you were my girlfriend I can be your hero All of my life Bamba, bamba See you WAH, WAH, WAH Wherever I go I can't wait for the world to spin Arriba y arriba *instrumental break* OH YEAH!

[@Celestial7Heavens]

I remember Sbarro Pizza did a collab with LidRock in 2003 also did something similar where they sold these tiny promo CDs that were the size of a GameCube disc. The problem was what device did we needed to play them? Cool thing was that they included a list of full songs in good quality and included a music video. Brittney Spears’s music video “Me against the music” zoomed in on one of these mini promo CDs.

[@MrMedeiros223]

"Music right between your ears!". Literally has one headphone lol

[@DukeDudeston]

Yeah but the high pitch tinniness of the sound will rip right through the eardrum and get stuck there.

[@jessebrook1688]

Music right between the eyes. Bam! It's dead.

[@jonc4403]

"Right between your ears" = You have to use your brain to remember what the music actually sounds like.

[@elonmask50]

Flippin heck Matt, that’s a poor bitrate, I see where the Government got their ideas for the DAB+ band widths from.

[@HarryMudd]

Back in the day I experimented with converting a music-snippet to mp3 using 11khz mono and 8kbps bitrate.. Sounded like someone trying to talk through 50 thick pillows 🤣

[@krzysztofczarnecki8238]

Or someone yellind through a bag of unboiled rice

[@DrewNorthup]

Yet another reason why that hasn't caught on much in the USA… (We do have second audio programs and digital subcarrier content through some broadcasters this side of the pond, but DAB / DRM not so much.)

[@tgheretford]

If you ever get a period of high pressure and get to hear stations from mainland Europe, or even just listen to the short clips at the Digital Bitrate website, you will weep at how much better stations sound when you strike a balance bitrate and number of services. Sadly DAB is sold on the idea of choice, not quality, hence the low bitrates as they can theoretically cram thirty stations on a frequency at current bitrates.

[@tgheretford]

Plus, a recent development is that stations, starting with Global Radio's ones, have reduced the sampling rate used for DAB+ services from 48kHz to 32kHz.

[@PowerArmorV113]

3:04 Nothing shows how much of a relic of the time you are than having at least one Aaron Carter song on it. And this has many.

[@MrMatteNWk]

I like how his name was the only one with the "previously clicked" purplish link color. Come late 2022, now it's *really* a relic.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Wow, the sarcasm in this one is even stronger than normal. And that outro! You got some real laughs this time, thank you!

[@Antihelpful]

I got one of these as a Christmas present when I was a kid with the FM radio card, I would sneak it into class and listen to the radio haha. Never bought any clips other than the free ones it came with, but the FM radio on it I remember not being that bad. I remember falling asleep and listening to late-night radio talk shows in the UK, but the clips audio might actually be the worst music medium since the wax cylinder...

[@worldcomicsreview354]

@@RETROMAN-KZbin-Channel I've wondered on and off if people couldn't "remaster" old gramophone records from the best possible copy by taking a mould and then making new records with some sort of modern plastic or something. Same for making "kinder" gramophone needles. They did it with bamboo back in the day, but surely some modern alternative is feasable?

[@Dresdentrumpet]

@@worldcomicsreview354 They have digitally remaster's old gramophone records and even remastered phonograms (Alexander Graham Bell was working with these) See Patrick Feaster's channel on YT.

[@diceroll2843]

@Shauneh: Microchip FM radios have improved and are now special features in Android smartphone/tablet which functions like Google music software operationing In the back ground and showing the name of the song.

[@diceroll2843]

@@imark7777777 Yes well china is big on Puting FM radio in computers but I invented a format worse than hit clip called flip phone recoding in 4kb byte rate .

[@diceroll2843]

@@imark7777777 I prefer a traditional pipe but it's hard to hide unless you spray baby powder

[@HMods1991]

The FM adapter was the best, I could pick up stations 80+ miles from me at night with the little mono 1 eared micro personal player and just jam while I should've been asleep

[@VeeTwoPointOh]

I always wanted that card!

[@user-yg4kj2mf1p]

What? There was an FM adapter? These where never marketed in my country, and when I saw the video I thought these things were made in order to separate kids (that were too dumb to save up for a real walkman) from their money, and let's be honest the prerecorded clips were, but an FM adapter of this size would be great.

[@CBZED101]

I graduated in 2004 and only remember seeing these on TV, but never saw one in person. Maybe they were more popular in elementary schools.

[@E3kHatena]

“I’ve got one of those, I’ll show ya one day” is said like an uncle who promises he’ll bring his copy of Resident Evil or his film projector to the next family reunion.

[@Sam-K]

Guess they didn't learn a thing from Pocket Rockers...

[@Techmoan]

They made their money - and then some.

[@Chris-tn9bf]

difference is, pocket rockers at least sounded okay

[@snoballuk]

@@aserta The first hit(clip) is free. And by free I mean $4.

[@LarryTalbot_1313]

About the only way to sell worthless tech like that is to appeal to kids, because no sane adult would pay that kind of money for half a song when they could buy a CD single for the same price! Flippin' eck? Bloomin' 'el!!!

[@SpongeMagic]

Well at least the Pocket Rockers was decent quality

[@braien334]

The horrible quality actually reminded me of the early "real song" ringtones on mobile phones.

[@jrsc01.]

The 'Polyphonic' ones. Remember you had everybody advertising them for £3 on back of magazine etc... to send you the code via sms...

[@braien334]

@@jrsc01. I actually meant the first "real" songs, the polyphonic were more clear, but yeah, you had to order them via sms, and prior to that, ordering those low-res logos for screen backgrounds, oh how the times have changed for the better...

[@jrsc01.]

@@braien334 how true

[@Stefan-]

Before i even read you comment i though that the audio quality would only be good for just that. ring tones on mobile phones.

[@SmallLittleMicky]

"I've got that on vinyl" really rings true after listening to a song on hitclips

[@LordSandwichII]

I want to get one of these and make my own cartridges for it! There was also one that could turn any Hit Clip player into a really crap FM radio.

[@WildBluntHickok]

You should've had the puppets at the end. This is the perfect product for them to go back and forth on sarcastically ripping on it.

[@chrisfi3d]

Less puppets the better

[@EpicB]

It would only work if we could have gotten a HitClip of Master of Puppets.

[@khhnator]

this rips itself

[@Thiesi]

@@khhnator For anyone who had any doubts about that - the outro music is all that is needed to prove this claim.

[@Recordology]

“Hailing frequencies closed” 😂😂😂

[@KillerBill1953]

I love how you keep bringing us things I've never heard of before. It's not just that the recording quality is rubbish but, in my opinion, so was the music. My son was too old by the time they were released (17 is) and I had moved over to CDs for music listening. My general preference has always been albums, especially with longer tracks. Thanks.

[@TheFruitMugger]

The sound quality is comparable to that of songs included in Tony Hawk games for the Game Boy Advance.

[@wolfetteplays8894]

Yeah that’s true it sounds hella nostalgic

[@richardpowell4281]

I was a tween during the hit clips era. They were definitely a short lived trendy thing. It was almost a middle class status symbol if someone had like. 10 or more of the little cartridges dangling from their backpack. They were garbage compared to MP3 players though.

[@Mr-Trox]

My sister had just the single one, and then my Dad bought her a CD player instead. She probably only had one because it was the red boombox and it didnt have earphones.

[@melskunk]

I bought my tween cousin a cheap but very decent mp3 player back around this era and she was upset because she wanted one of these. I was like 19 or 20 and knew the MP3 player was better, but you can't fight trends

[@900Yugo]

I had a cheap $5 FM radio that sounds better when I was in Elementary School at that time. The best part? Batteries were cheaper to replace only cost $1 from dollar store and that lasts 4 weeks.

[@bruhbbawallace]

i was a kid when these were popular, but i have no memory of them whatsoever. that being said, these are an incredible time capsule from the early 2000s. from the design of the packaging, the design of the players, the songs chosen for the format, the extreme compression, all of this screams early 2000s to me. it's oddly comforting, despite the obvious low quality.

[@jeffseesselberg7348]

I had a bunch of these things, partly because I was part of the core demographic at the time. Even at 12 I could recognize that the audio quality was awful, but it had the intended effect: I was so into the music that I went straight over to Kazaa and pirated the full, probably inaccurately named, version of the song 🥰

[@Matt-bj6re]

I'm so happy i ran across this video, in the early 2000's when i was a kid i had the yellow boombox version of the hitclip and for the past 5-6 years i could not remember the name of it or even know where to search to find it. I'm definitely going to buy a unit even though the sound quality i remember is quite bad.

[@300DBenz]

Techmoan: “I don’t know what bit rate this is.” HitClips: “Yes we have a bit rate.” Techmoan: “How many bits?” HitClips: “A bit!”

[@mb-ql1gb]

"I know what you bit last summer" ... ^^

[@Ektalon]

300DBenz A bit of bits?

[@reggiep75]

I'm so curious to know the bit depth... 'What is the bit depth?' 'Yes, this hits the bit depths... of sweet, sweet suffering!'

[@jacobinghoy3551]

It's from tiger electronics, So it's?? 64 bits 32 bits 16 bits 8 BIT 4 BIT 3 BIT 2 BIT 1 BIT! HALF BIT!??? QUARTER BIT!???? THE HITTTTTCLIIIIIIPPPPPSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! quote from AVGN

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

@@reggiep75 According to the article linked in the description it's 7 bit. Not even 8 bit, that would be too expensive! Furthermore, each storage "chip" (Actually a black blob like in all the cheapest of the cheap tat) may very well have the data actually molded into the silicon wafer rather than a cheap writable storage thing.

[@MazeFrame]

The wikipedia article has been corrected. Never claim Techmoan doesn't have an impact.

[@jukeboxdude]

I got a boombox shaped hit clips player and a handful of tracks for Christmas in 2000 and it was pretty cool for a while, but annoying that the songs were cut down. People actually did carry them to school and trade them and often heard one playing on the bus. About a year later they were pretty much forgotten. I do remember getting in trouble because someone bumped my backpack setting off the player and it freaked one of the teachers out.

[@potatosordfighter666]

I don't know how many people noticed this, but I really like that you recorded your outro onto the recordable hit clip.

[@OneEightZero180]

"That's a poison chalice." I almost lost my coffee.

[@SianaGearz]

I didn't get that reference.

[@ltvg]

@@SianaGearz might be a YandereDev reference. Might be mistaken.

[@woffyreal]

@@ltvg its a reference to a book i think

[@voxelbugged]

I love how after this video everyone rushed to fix the wikipedia article

[@vojtechjurasek6180]

Fastest edit in the west

[@jasonblalock4429]

@@tbird81 I genuinely doubt there's someone camping the Hitclips article, of all things. Chances are the misinformation stayed there just because no one had ever cared enough to fact-check it.

[@numanuma20]

Pen Doncher booo

[@frank6842]

@@tbird81 yeah that's not really how wiki works.

[@lloydtshare]

Not everyone m8

[@Randerson2409]

I vaguely remember these from when I was a kiddo, and my memory of them can be summarised as "I enjoyed the novelty of the songs for one listen, then never again"

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Those record executives are so damn greedy, always getting alarmed about anything they feel cannot control. Yet almost always what they fight ends up in fact helping sales.

[@WalcomS7]

Been eagerly awaiting this one, because I still have these things around in a little bag somewhere. As stupid as they were, it was pretty cool at the time.

[@K1TT3NM1TT3N5]

I thought this was the way of the future when I got my first Nsync clip

[@degeneratepervert6255]

K1TT3NM1TT3N5 I had a red one, I got it from McD’s through the drive through with that “bye bye bye” song. I remember this being the first time feeling ripped off by advertisers, lol

[@JonnyMorgan18]

I guess the ADD nature of only 60 seconds of each song was laying the path for streaming, where the bad habit of skipping tracks is common, I find myself doing it and I grew up with cassette tapes.

[@brandonsteele2826]

@@K1TT3NM1TT3N5 me too. I got suckered into buying one of these as a kid and was very disappointed.

[@nutzeeer]

yea i have the boombox. it was quite annoying to my parents.

[@0311Mushroom]

No, the worst pre-recorded music format were those records you cut from the back of a cereal box. You should cover that sometime.

[@moonshine3333]

0311Mushroom I think he has in a Polish postcard video not long ago.

[@PattyKuluCakes]

Wow, I’ve never heard of the cereal box records and I just googled it. Interest! I’m assuming it probably didn’t last multiple plays? Cool concept tho.

[@oystermind]

i've got a scuffed cereal box one i found jammed in between books in an old shop... and i still think it sounds better than this lol

[@HipixOFFICIAL]

@@PattyKuluCakes you'd be surprised how they last.

[@moonshine3333]

If the cereal box records aren't mentioned in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZnMpJqvott-kJo they certainly are in the comments. Absolutely fascinating look into a past most of us never had to experience.

[@jakeofiach5044]

Rapidly became my favourite content creator! came randomly from a mini-dishwasher, stayed for the vibe, knowledgable content and random stuff Please keep it up

[@Fuenzzalicious]

I was the target back in the days. I was 11/12 yo and I loved this format. I remember they used to say that it was like a Game Boy for music. Still got a few... Of course soon there was the mp3 and all became obsolete, but Still have great memories. As you said It was a toy for kids and was a great toy. Great video, man. Subscribed!

[@glowinggrenade]

It is far into the future... A ship touches down on the wasteland planet, it informs its occupant that there is electrical technology nearby. The occupant, excited to discover information about the lost inhabitants starts the relic extractor. it plunges into the ground, pulling up revealing a polymer square with circuitry inside. after a few minutes of tinkering the occupant discovers it stores sound. eager to hear the legacy of this planet in this final relic the creature plays the sound. It leaves the planet, disappointed. HitClips.

[@albanana683]

Perhaps they had already played the analogue recording from the plaque on the Voyager space probe - doubtless much better fidelity than this - and travelled across the universe for more Chuck Berry. Big disappointment in the audio and artist quality stakes.

[@francistheodorecatte]

units received

[@szabolcsmate5254]

26 edits on the wikipedia article since you uploaded this, less then 24 hours ago. People can say whatever they want, but wikipedia is great. It may not be perfect, but it aspires to be, and it is keep getting better.

[@TheJunky228]

there's still a lot of sections of Wikipedia with clear bias, or incorrect facts, and many of them are overseen by a single person keeping them that way...but yeah I agree, it's not perfect, it gets better, and generally tries to be better

[@glipk]

Good

[@fatuusdottore]

@@TheJunky228 Usually leftist bias. But for non-political things, it’s a good resource.

[@fatuusdottore]

@@imark7777777 There are a lot of people at Wiki with an axe to grind lol. Think about it - who else would volunteer to be the arbiter of what counts as factual for some niche or controversial topic?

[@willcamick]

I enjoyed this. It was informative but also I enjoyed getting to see alot of the product from different perspectives. Hearing the sound really took me back to better times lol.

[@furuyawn]

my mom refused to buy these for me when i was a kid, but my best friend had one so i would go over to her house and listen to when it's over by sugar ray on repeat skfkdkfkskg

[@PeterMoore66]

Did they release one with Bonnie Tyler singing "Total Hit Clips of the Heart"? :-)

[@bryede]

♪♫♪♫"Turn it off" ♪♫♪♫

[@donesko81]

Very underrated comment.

[@davetheelasticgoose4838]

oh this is a gem 😂

[@jonathanpullen7439]

*groan* 8888888888

[@frankcooke1692]

Get in the bin

[@AgeingBoyPsychic]

_"This one's still in its packaging so let's rectify that issue.."_ (a million obsessive toy collectors) *"Nooooooooooo!"*

[@davechupp7922]

I chuckled when he said that and cringed a little in the mids of his rectification procedure.

[@AugustusOakstar]

“We can rebuild him....“, boy does that date us. How about,“Danger Danger Will Robinson“. In the first season of Star Trek, (pronouced star track, growing up in Texas nearly killed me as a public speaker, but my mum corrected me endlessly to create a son whose american english is so generic as to be unidentifiable as to state of origin. Thanks mum, she 84, lives with me, and corrects me to this day

[@velociraptor8984]

I`m still amazed that every time i watch your channel, 99% of the time these are products i never heard of, or seen before, and being from Canada and having work at Radio Shack for nearly 30 years here ... it`s even`more amazing to me !

[@evanvandenbrul5500]

“...that’s a poisoned chalice...” did not expect a roast of Raven in a Techmoan vid 15:20

[@Techmoan]

It’s meant more as a show of sympathy for someone being given the unenviable job of ‘dead product promoter’.

[@trippymchippy8586]

They missed the 'S' off the start of the name.

[@TorontoPopulistConservative]

I knew this comment would be here

[@mietschj]

I was staring at this comment for waaay longer than I'm comfortable admitting, wondering why they would call it Hits Clips.

[@combatking0]

Well, the intention was to milk kids for their cash, so $hit¢lips would have also worked.

[@memmoman]

shitclips

[@JackieRoxs]

The constantly changing icon 12:03 and terrible audio gives me so many memories of pressing the buttons at the music section of Walmart in early 2000s that let you hear different songs xD

[@early2exit]

I had only like 3 clips. Britany Spears and Back Street Boys of course. But I cant tell you how much i loved these little things.Spent hours listening to only clips of 3 songs but they were great! The amount of nostalgia I'm getting just from seeing them again is insane!

[@Broken_Yugo]

I've had offshore tech support phone calls with better audio quality.

[@SaraSpruce]

Hell, calling a tech support line to listen to the hold music would probably have given you better quality music for cheaper even at the time.

[@moishesilverman1971]

“Kids love collecting” - said the man with an absurdly large collection of obscure music formats

[@Techmoan]

It’s curation ;-)

[@LiciaPrehn]

This gave me so many memories. I had the smaller player and a few clips. I was 10/11 and I quickly got bored with the bit rate and how short the songs were. But there was a few month period where these were THE coolest thing.

[@daltysmilth]

You have to remember the music companies had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the digital music market. The inventor of the mp3 tried to get the music companies on board early on, and when they dragged their feet, Napster came along and allowed people to share mp3’s for free. That was all going on around this same time. So maybe they were popular with kids, but adults- especially young adults, kind of thought of HitClips as a bit of a slap in the face.