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Friday, November 21, 2008
slotMusic.org: Future of Music Sales?
Posted by Ivan Pena on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 10:01 AM
I came across an ad in Rolling Stone about slotMusic.org, a new music "format" that is being hyped by major labels as "a versatile new physical music format for the 21st Century". In short, the new slotMusic format is a 1 Gig microSD card preloaded with DRM-free mp3s (properly tagged and 320 kBPs) and videos that consumers can load into their phones, mp3 players and computers without limitations, passwords or access to the Internet.
On their Website, www.slotmusic.org, you can read more about the limited numbers of artists they have available (Keane, MIA, Akon, Rise Against, Hendrix, thenewno2, Weezer among current artists available) and if yo ur Mobile device is microSD compatible (my cell is not). Currently, the only way to purchase slotMusic is online or at Best Buy and Walmart.
SlotMusic comes across to me as a beta program by a technology company to see if its sticks and an attempt for major labels to re-control the music distribution channel that the Internet took away. Will it make an impact? Probably not. Musicphiles and bloggers everywhere have been panning this idea since late September.
Pros
- DRM-free is good for consumers who want to share music
- Smaller than CDs or vinyl, so it takes less space to store
- Since Major labels are behind this and will buy in bulk, it should drive down the price of microSD cards overall
- Reusable and smaller media = better for the environment than CDs and jewel cases
- Using technology to come up with new ways to remove limitations from music sharing
Cons
- iPods and iPhones are the mainstream and they do not support microSD cards
- They are not supporting independent labels and technology is cost-prohibitive for unsigned and independent bands
- Easy to lose or delete content
- Very few artists available
- Only available at Best Buy and Walmart so puts another nail in the coffin of record stores
I am not fully convinced that this is the way to go, but might be a step in the right direction if people buy into it. The concept has similar potential to over mediums that revolutionized music sharing. People adopted cassettes because they could make mix tapes or copies of LPs and other cassettes. CD-Rs exploded once burning CDs became affordable. MP3 brough the industry to its knees due to their portability. Will microSD cards follow that trend? It's possible, but only time will tell.
Maybe if they provide a Web-based music management system -- like iTunes -- to keep track of what you buy in case you lose your card or so you can access it over the Web would be useful. Also, gotta find a way to get Apple on board with this, otherwise this will fail in the short run.
Learn more at: http://www.slotmusic.org/
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
slot music is a gimmick that will go the way of the minidisk. sure, you still see them, but who cares. some mainstream artist and lots of indie artists have been releasing albums on USB flash drives. these are just as portable, anyone with a computer built in the recent past can access the music to put it on an ipod or cd, and it's cheap, too!
like
dislikeI agree. This is some Betamax shit. What's the difference between this and a USB drive except that not everyone has a Smartcard reader? The format will matter less and less, it's the data (the music) that's important. Eventually, we'll be able to download the music via wi-fi directly to our devices, or simply store the music on "the cloud." It will matter very little what format it exists on in the meantime.
Don't be so negative guys. Micro SD is a great format. Many people have puters or phones or devices with an SD slot. Also the slotmusic card comes with packaging that is collectable and nostalgic like CDs on Vinyl. MP3 at 320kbps is better than most music download stores and you get videos and more on the card. Plus once you transfer the stuff to ur puter u can use the card for anything or have a back-up already made. True people with an iPod/iPhone would have to transfer via a computer but that is no more trouble than ripping a CD or downloading from iTunes. I personally buy CDs for the physical momento and the sound quality but if slotmusic artists load lossless (mp3 even at 320 doesn't do it for me) music onto the cards in the future I would totally buy them. Apple and iPod need to learn to play nice with others. SD slots in iPod/iPhone would be great and I bet we will see them soon. But with all the sd enabled blackberries, music phones, laptops, etc. out there slotmusic could make a place in the market if made readily available in stores and at concerts.
i dont think i would purchase a slotmusic micro sd card even if i had a device that would accept it. i personally find a flash usb drive to be a better solution to digital content, but again, i am not into lossy format purchases.
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