slotMusic (Memory Cards) - The New CD?

[J_UNTITLED]

From news.yahoo.com (Associated Press via Yahoo! News)

By Rachel Metz

- "Just as vinyl once gave way to compact discs as the main physical medium for music, could CDs be replaced now by a fingernail-sized memory card? Perhaps not entirely, but SanDisk Corp., four major record labels and retailers Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are hoping that albums sold on microSD memory cards will at least provide an additional stream of sales. The companies were expected to unveil plans Monday to sell memory cards loaded with music in the MP3 format, free of copy protections.

Called "slotMusic," the new format is meant to address two intertwined trends. Most albums are still sold in a physical format — 449 million were sold on CDs in 2007, while 50 million were sold digitally, according to Nielsen SoundScan — yet CDs are decreasingly popular. Albums sold on CD dropped almost 19 percent last year.

Given this, the record labels — Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC — are hoping slotMusic can be another physical revenue source — and one that is more versatile than CDs, given the kinds of gadgets people carry around these days.

Unlike when the CD was introduced and people had to buy new players, many people already have the ability to play slotMusic albums, since many cell phones and multimedia players support microSD cards.

These new albums will come with a small USB dongle that lets buyers use them with computers, too.

"Particularly in this kind of economic climate, the idea of being able to use an electronic device you already own to enjoy music rather than going out and buying a dedicated player is pretty compelling," said Daniel Schreiber, who heads the audio-video business unit at SanDisk, which created the microSD card format and is working on the technology behind slotMusic.

Schreiber said slotMusic albums will be sold on 1 gigabyte microSD cards, which means they will be able to hold a full album and related content such as liner notes and cover art. Buyers will be able to use extra space on the cards to hold songs and photos from their own collections.

The cards and dongles will come in boxes similar to current CD packaging, and Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be "in the ballpark" of current CD prices.

It's not yet known exactly when — or how many — albums will be initially sold in the format, but Schreiber expects retailers to give a "sizable amount of shelf space" to slotMusic albums. The albums are expected to debut at multiple retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., and later in Europe.

Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's eLabs digital music unit, said the label will initially release about 30 titles in the slotMusic format. The titles will include old and new albums, such as one by singer Akon.

"We want to provide the benefits of digital music to people who go to physical retail environments," he said.

Asked whether he sees the format taking the place of the CD, Caraeff said, "I think we would certainly hope that would be the case, but I don't think we are so tied to that."

NPD Group entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick sees a potential for slotMusic to emerge as a compelling format. He said the industry needs "desperately" to give people a new reason to head back into the music sections at brick-and-mortar stores.

"Not that we want them out of the gaming section, but once they're done looking at `Guitar Hero' we want them to come look at the music section," he said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/...n_memory_cards

[Forrestandjen07]

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news....Memory.Cards/

[xtop]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=64440

cd's aren't going anywhere tho

[Blu Kreme]

Kinda stupid. They say the cd is becoming less popular because of mp3's. Ok. So why would they use yet another physical format when downloading music is much more popular and cheaper?

Who wants to have 100's of micro sd cards floating around when you have an iphone/ipod that can mix and match and carry all your music? Sorry, but I personally don't want to lug around 15+ cards.

Also, all this comes in the same size case that current cd's use. Talk about waste.

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by Blu Kreme

Kinda stupid. They say the cd is becoming less popular because of mp3's. Ok. So why would they use yet another physical format when downloading music is much more popular and cheaper?

Who wants to have 100's of micro sd cards floating around when you have an iphone/ipod that can mix and match and carry all your music? Sorry, but I personally don't want to lug around 15+ cards.

Also, all this comes in the same size case that current cd's use. Talk about waste.

haha yea, just focus more on itunes, napster and zune

[Blu Kreme]

Originally Posted by Forrestandjen07

haha yea, just focus more on itunes, napster and zune

Forget napster. I tried them and had so many problems I was like forget it. Thankfully only bought like 3 songs. Zune, never used.

I will stick with itunes

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by Blu Kreme

Forget napster. I tried them and had so many problems I was like forget it. Thankfully only bought like 3 songs. Zune, never used.

I will stick with itunes

yea napster was a better program when it was free

[LORDs_angellos]

iTunes is awesome but most of the music isn't 256 kbps which is a must for me. I end up having to buy CDs a lot of the time. The album art is always a nice addition to the music as well too.

[Blu Kreme]

Originally Posted by Forrestandjen07

yea napster was a better program when it was free

Lol, yeah it was. Much better.

Originally Posted by LORDs_angellos

iTunes is awesome but most of the music isn't 256 kbps which is a must for me. I end up having to buy CDs a lot of the time. The album art is always a nice addition to the music as well too.

I honestly don't care. My ears can't hear the difference. However, if I buy any music in physical format, it will be on vinyl. Music on vinyl - I CAN HEAR a difference. Sounds much fuller and better on it. CD's are crap.

[Chevypower]

Maybe they should have a higher sampling standard like 96/24 stereo (don't bring back that multi-channel crap) - multi-track might be a neat idea though.

[hc666]

Long live CDs and Vinyl!

[bhampton]

I bought my wife an Ipod last year. Now,.. she wants to buy me one and get some docking stations so that we can have more music about the house. (Essentially replacing old CD boom box type of stuff with this Mp3 docking station crap.)

I can't stand listening to MP3's though... so I reminded her of all the Blu Rays I want instead.

I've ripped some PCM from my favorite Cd's to my Ps3's hard drive and they sound great even if they do take up lots of space. I understand hard drives are fairly cheap.

-Brian

[Galley]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I bought my wife an Ipod last year. Now,.. she wants to buy me one and get some docking stations so that we can have more music about the house. (Essentially replacing old CD boom box type of stuff with this Mp3 docking station crap.)
-Brian

Tell her to check out the Griffin Amplifi. It's a steal at $91 shipped. I've got two of them.

[dialog_gvf]

The cards and dongles will come in boxes similar to current CD packaging, and Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be "in the ballpark" of current CD prices.

In other words, it will cost more.

But, it shows what can happen when a flash gets "in the ballpark" of disc replication pricing.

When 64GB is a few bucks, then video can be sold on it.

Gary

[mikejet]

I will buy Vinyls and purchase music through iTunes but I refuse to buy CD's anymore, it's a waste of space. All my music is on my computer and iPod or on shelves where I keep my record collection. This is such a dumb idea.

[jono_0101]

itunes, zune, etc... is whats going to outlast CDs, but i dont think those are going away anytime soon either, personally though, i quit lugging my cd case around, it was always too much of a hassle and took up too much room in my car, i bought one of those ipod docks that connects to the aux port on my car stereo, now i can carry my entire music library everywhere i go and it fits in my pocket and doesnt weight 25 lbs

[Chevypower]

If iTunes Store did not have DRM, and all were encoded in Apple Lossless, I would just buy off there. So I buy the CD, and rip it in iTunes, using Lossless. Then I put the CD away with the others in the closet.

[fighthefutureofhd]

i don't think itunes, zune, or the like will ever replace cd's. cd's aren't going anywhere. if anything cd's will end up replacing itunes and zunes. or drive them out of business. the reason for that is cd's are hardware and you can't beat hardware. whereas mp3's and such aren't. if your computer crashes you've lost everything you've bought and then you have to re-buy everything which is more money out of your pocket.

not to mention the fact that selection on itunes and zune is utter crap. you're lucky if the download you want is a full album or a partial album. i've seen better deals at fye for the cd than i have on itunes. i'll never lose my music because my music is all on cd and can't be lost. also there are many, many cd's that are long out of print that will never see the light of day on itunes or zune. cd most definitely for the win.

[plowmanjoe]

i like the memory card idea a lot. i'm sure ipods and zunes will adapt and have sd slots right on them so you can upload music wherever. so it'll be like a cd but better. also don't have to worry about scratches. i'm thinking video games will eventually go the sd memory card path as well.

[Chevypower]

How will CDs drive them out of business? CDs have been around since 1982, iTunes started up 20 years later and is successful. If CDs were going to drive them out of business, they wouldn't have got it up and going in the first place.