News came out yesterday that compact-flash card manufacturer SanDisk is teaming up with some record labels and retailers to unveil the “slotMusic” format (here’s the article from Wired/AP.)
This idea caught my eye because the small memory cards are becoming more ubiquitous these days – I recently bought a new cell phone, and the only way to download photos I had taken was to purchase a memory card – and it makes sense that someone would decide to mass market them for something other than image-collection.
Will it fly? My initial reaction, as indicated by this post’s title, was, ‘I’ll have to buy my music again?’ But putting this aside, there are some compelling reasons why this might work.
First, the card will mean you won’t have to buy any new hardware, which is a smart tactic in today’s economy. The 1 GB size will be able to hold an album along with other music (although, the dude from SanDisk says it will also hold the cover art – but who wants to look at cover art on a cell phone screen? Long live the vinyl LP!) and liner notes. And thus far, considerations of audio quality have not been addressed – I mean, if you play the ’slotMusic’ on your cell phone, what sort of music experience is this?
Replacing records with CDs was a long, drawn-out process. It’s highly unlikely that this new format will replace the CD, and I think this because those behind the initiative hope that this is what will bring people back into retail stores. I’m not sure anything will bring people back to retail stores. Once digital retail is worked out, the main reason people will go to record stores will be to buy… vinyl. Of course, this new format could also catch fire with the under-25 set, and if that happens then a sea change may in fact be in the offing.
And I’m not sure that ’slotMusic’ is going to fly as a name, but that’s another thought entirely.
