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Music labels trying new format: SanDisk's slotMusic mini flash memory cards
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by JeffHuang | September 22, 2008 at 03:10 pm
829 views | 4 Recommendations | 6 comments
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slotMusic cards are what they are called. It's an album in a mini flash memory card which is the new hope for the music industry. Since CDs are becoming extinct, they are hoping that these mini memory cards will boost sales as they are used in mobile phones, digital music players and some car stereos.
Move over, compact discs. Something the size of a fingernail may offer the music industry a way to boost sales in retail stores as CD purchases continue to decline.
The four major record labels plan to start selling their music on mini flash memory cards that can be loaded into some mobile phones, digital music players and car stereos.
Made by SanDisk Corp., the slotMusic cards are expected to go on sale before the holiday season at Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Neither SanDisk nor the record labels would disclose the price of the cards, other than to say they would be comparable to CDs.
The jury is still out on whether this new idea is going to work. iTunes and online downloading are still the major players in the music industry so I wonder if these mini memory cards will catch on. I don't think I will buy it, will you?
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 22:53 on September 22nd, 2008
This CF flash memory card, is one of many CF flash memory cards that I used to take and store photos on.
SYangPhoto has contributed a photo to this story.
at 01:04 on September 23rd, 2008
I am not too keen on this idea. Although I do think it's a natural progression, and rather futuristic. If they do this, I hope the cost of these will be negligible compared to CD's. I really think that digital content should be divorced from physical media. I believe that downloading content, DRM free, is the way forwards. Whether all our content comes on separate compact discs or MiniSD cards, we have to find somewhere to keep them and look after them. If our content is effectively "in the cloud" and/or on our computers then we have a zero physical-storage space solution.
DavidRGilson has contributed a photo to this story.
at 02:42 on September 23rd, 2008
In my opinion the best flash drive for DSLR cameras I have seen.
Artem Ostrometskiy has contributed a photo to this story.
at 20:29 on September 23rd, 2008
JeffHuang, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I don't know. Is it a proprietary format? Or is it just MP3s-on-an-SD card? Didn't they already try a gimmicky approach to getting back marketshare with some kind of "MP3s in proprietary player" concept that people basically rejected before it even got to market? IE, why would we need to buy 40 "players" with preloaded music when we can simply download music and carry it all on ONE player?
Will this be a similar debacle? Will the new cards be good for anything else other than the preloaded songs, or will they be hard-wired (read-only)? Will they be compatible with existing MP3 players, or require a proprietary mono-function player that nobody will abandon their [these days] versatile MP3 players for?
I guess, on reading the main article, it says they'll basically be mini-SD cards, or be able to be read by devices that currently use mini-SD cards. That's good. Will they be re-writable, or have SOME rewritable space on them? Probably not. Will anyone adopt these rather than simply using online sites to buy music? Hard to say. I'd doubt it.
Regards,
~Michael Gmirkin
at 09:38 on September 24th, 2008
the Largest digital music storage. Legal, secure mp3 service with well-ordered mp3 content http://westsounds.com/
at 10:03 on September 28th, 2008
JeffHuang, I like this story. It's good stuff. The music industry "slept" on digital music downloads when it first started becoming popular. Had they jumped on the trend early on, they wouldn't be wandering how to boost sales. I think this idea is "too little too late". Would prefer just to be able to download legally instead of music on a slot card.