Music Publishers Preparing to Launch New Physical Music Format: slotMusic

[eric]

I like the idea. While I have started downloading more music via Amazon, I still enjoy having physical media.

The option for the recording label to bundle music videos with the album could easily sway me to choose this over CD.

DRM Free, great quality, no CD scratches, still can have a "cover album" sounds good. No new hardware (mini-disk2) makes it more palatable.

It wouldn't cause me to stop digital downloads, but it could easily switch my CD purchases over.

Imagine a kiosk (like the DVD kiosks) with hundreds of albums available sitting in an airport with a built in reader/connector for the Zune & Ipod. Give travelers something to do whilel waiting for their delayed plane to depart:-)

[eric]

I like the idea. While I have started downloading more music via Amazon, I still enjoy having physical media.

The option for the recording label to bundle music videos with the album could easily sway me to choose this over CD.

DRM Free, great quality, no CD scratches, still can have a "cover album" sounds good. No new hardware (mini-disk2) makes it more palatable.

It wouldn't cause me to stop digital downloads, but it could easily switch my CD purchases over.

Imagine a kiosk (like the DVD kiosks) with hundreds of albums available sitting in an airport with a built in reader/connector for the Zune & Ipod. Give travelers something to do whilel waiting for their delayed plane to depart:-)

[kerrins]

DOA
I just can't fathom why I would buy individual albums of anything anymore. I hated that when I was buying records a hundred years ago. I know when I bought an album/tape I bought it for 1 or 2 songs I liked and was often stuck with 3-4 I didn't and 3-4 which I already had on a different album. Being able to buy one song I like, one at a time, and store it on a harddrive (flash would be better) is the way I will buy in the future. I won't carry a pocket full of chips.

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by kerrins

I won't carry a pocket full of chips.

Why not? I've seen people carry CD "wallets" that hold 20 or so CDs. These would be smaller.

Of course, you don't have to carry the chips. Because the music is DRM free, you can copy the music to your hard drive.

There are scenarios where this format would be useful, too. If you're travelling, and don't have an Internet connection, but want a song, this provides a way to get a digital copy. Yes, you could buy a CD and rip it -- if you have a PC and an optical drive -- but SlotMusic would be easier.

Again, I don't think it's perfect. It could well be the next DIVX (not the codec, the Circuit City DVD format), but I don't think it's DOA, either.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by Rob Alexander

There's just nothing about this to like; it's a solution in search of a problem. If you want to buy entire albums, this has no advantages over CDs.

Of course it does. You can't put CDs into phones.

Originally Posted by Rob Alexander

No one is going to slip these into their phones... as has already been pointed out, my microSD slot takes 3-4 minutes to access and swap a card to.

Maybe it's a poorly designed phone. My Motorola Q9m has its MiniSD slot easily acccessible on the outside and I have a MicroSD card in an adapter. I think my daughter's LG Voyager also has an external slot, as did my old Motorola V710.

And, depending on your stereo, it can take a minute or two to power up, open the CD tray, put the CD in, close the tray, load the CD (especially if it's a changer) and start playing. I think the worst thing about this would on those phones where you had to power down to change the card (which it sounds like you have to do).

Originally Posted by Rob Alexander

All anyone would do is buy this, copy the tracks to their computer and then sync them with their Phone, PPC or music player. And if you're going to do that, I'd rather just download them and choose only the songs I want.

As I pointed out above, what happens when you don't have Internet access but want a song? I suspect the majority of people still don't have data plans on their phones.

Steve

[RobrechtV]

Add my vote for "utterly stupid idea".

It takes a couple of steps to show where it fails miserably.

1. Presumed advantages over downloading:
* you get a physical, tangible media carrier, which has its charm;
* and you get to discover, evolve through, spend time with an entire album with different moods and hidden gems that take some time to grow on you... rather than just picking out that one single that you already got half tired of hearing on the radio anyway.
Hey, I think I like this!

2. Um, didn't we have cd's for that? You know, those shiny round things that have been litterally all over the place for the last 30 years? Are you really trying to sell the "album" as a new concept?

3. Yeah but cd's are too big to carry around and they don't fit in an mp3 player so bingo! MicroSD!!!!!! Wanna listen to Metallica? Just pop out whatever you were listening to, put in that Metallica album and play.

4. No no no. Wait. You're not seriously suggesting we start swapping these cards like a friggin' card-jockey! Not when we've gotten used to having scores of albums stored in one memory location, giving us the ease and joy of shuffling and browsing at leasure through our entire music library. Not to mention the fact that many mp3-players and pda's hide that vulnerable little card slot behind a lid or even behind the battery.

5. Uh, yeah, we were kidding about the "swapping cards" idea. Haha. No, what we really think you'll do is copy the tracks off the card into your library. Voilà! You can leave the card at home.

6. Um, didn't we have cd's for that? You know, those shiny round things that have been litterally all over the place for the last 30 years? Are you really trying to sell "ripping" as a new concept?

7. Okay... But at least you get a get a nice 1gb memory card you can re-use, right? Can't get enough of those, right?

8. Yah... Say I buy one album a week, which is pretty average I think if you're into music. What on earth am I going to do with those 52 low-capacity (1gb) MicroSD cards I'll have lying around after one year? Who even needs eight of those when you can have 8gb (or even 16gb) in one little MicroSD card???


There you have it, 8 steps of doom. The advantage over cd's/downloading is just not great enough to get a whole new standard going, and it's not clear enough how you're meant to use these: putting them directly into your music player (a huge step backwards from having your entire library in one memory location) or copying the tracks to your device (which we've been doing with cd's for years).

See, the whole logic's backwards. These cards are better than cd's if you want to carry them around with you; only you don't want to carry them around: eventually you'll want to rip them to your device and leave them at home just like you did with cd's. So why not use cd's?

Not to mention the fact that this is a huge step backwards from an environmental point of view when compared to downloading... or even to cd's.

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

Add my vote for "utterly stupid idea".

It takes a couple of steps to show where it fails miserably.

You've taken "couple" to new heights (8).... Anyway....

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

2. Um, didn't we have cd's for that? You know, those shiny round things that have been litterally all over the place for the last 30 years? Are you really trying to sell the "album" as a new concept?

No, they're not selling it as a new "concept"; they're selling it as a new form. Did you dismiss CDs over records or cassette tapes because the album wasn't a new concept?

Yes, I know -- the CD was a bigger step over what already existed than SlotMusic is, but this point of yours is still wrong.

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

4. No no no. Wait. You're not seriously suggesting we start swapping these cards like a friggin' card-jockey! Not when we've gotten used to having scores of albums stored in one memory location, giving us the ease and joy of shuffling and browsing at leasure through our entire music library. Not to mention the fact that many mp3-players and pda's hide that vulnerable little card slot behind a lid or even behind the battery.

Think of the future. Maybe OEMs will stop hiding the slot, and those that didn't include slots before wil add them.

Imagine going to the store, getting a card, inserting it into your audio player and copying the music directly to your device. That would be a great option if you're on a trip and don't have Internet access, wouldn't it? Or think of seeing a concert, buying the band's SlotMusic card and copying it your device immediately.

No, all players can't take advantage of this yet, but they could. Apple had a much bigger task creating the iPod and iTunes than the music industry will have getting easily accessible slots in most players. (Of course, I don't expect Apple to add slots to the iPod; Apple is too tied to the control of iTunes to allow that.)

And don't forget that some people may not have MP3 players yet, so they may be used to swapping discs. Being able to buy music cards like this may give those hold outs the comfort they need to start buying digital music.

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

5. Uh, yeah, we were kidding about the "swapping cards" idea. Haha. No, what we really think you'll do is copy the tracks off the card into your library. Voilà! You can leave the card at home.

6. Um, didn't we have cd's for that? You know, those shiny round things that have been litterally all over the place for the last 30 years? Are you really trying to sell "ripping" as a new concept?

Ripping isn't the same as copying. With SlotMusic, you don't need any special program to move your music.

Also, as I pointed out above, the quality will likely be better than any rip you could make. The studios can digitize from the masters; end users can only transcode the already digitally compressed music on the CD.

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

8. Yah... Say I buy one album a week, which is pretty average I think if you're into music. What on earth am I going to do with those 52 low-capacity (1gb) MicroSD cards I'll have lying around after one year? Who even needs eight of those when you can have 8gb (or even 16gb) in one little MicroSD card???

Yeah, but so what? If the price I've heard for SlotMusic is right (about $7.99), that's cheaper than the album in iTunes, cheaper than most CDs, and you get the memory card thrown in for free. Use them as spares in your digital camera, put Christmas pictures on them and send them to relatives, whatever.

At least they're still useful for something (other than a backup) after you've gotten the music off of them, unlike CDs.

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

Not to mention the fact that this is a huge step backwards from an environmental point of view when compared to downloading... or even to cd's.

Can you prove that last point? Don't CDs use more plastic than a MicroSD card, and therefore more oil?

Steve

[Rocco Augusto]

Originally Posted by RobrechtV

What on earth am I going to do with those 52 low-capacity (1gb) MicroSD cards I'll have lying around after one year?

I quickly see a new business model developing. microSD RAID kits

I still this this system is horrible flawed and was only created as a way to sell more microSD cards. If they really cared about giving consumers something physical to have but also digital, they would just include a digital copy of the album on the CD or even just sell the digital album on a 80mm mini-cd. This is something that is considerably smaller than a 120mm CD and large enough on it so you can actually see the album art or tell which album is which at a glance. Plus they could sell the albums for the same price and generate larger profit margins since they can get these CDs pressed for pennies instead of buying the microSD cards and USB sticks that are needed in this current model.

[Steve Jordan]

Although I understand why the record companies want to try to keep their product tied to physical media (i.e. because it's easier on them than learning new tricks), I don't like this idea for one simple reason: It's going to amount to tons of micro-SD card waste that's going to end up in landfills.

When you only store 1 album per card, most people with players will want to load their music onto storage on their device or PC, at which point they have a 1GB SD they probably don't need (especially after they've bought a dozen albums or so), so they will throw away the SD. They will also be easy to lose at that size, which will mean being swept up in the cleaning and trashed. The SD becomes disposable... and the last thing this world needs is more disposable products (with non-degradable plastics and metals) to be landfilled.

The record industry may not like it, but they need to work out a digital delivery system that does not depend on specific media. Whether or not this system works for the recording industry, it's lousy for the rest of us, and for the planet.

[ctmagnus]

I have only one question for all of this:

Amazon, when are you going to roll out your worldwide (non-US, at least) MP3 store?

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Although I understand why the record companies want to try to keep their product tied to physical media (i.e. because it's easier on them than learning new tricks), I don't like this idea for one simple reason: It's going to amount to tons of micro-SD card waste that's going to end up in landfills.

When you only store 1 album per card, most people with players will want to load their music onto storage on their device or PC, at which point they have a 1GB SD they probably don't need (especially after they've bought a dozen albums or so), so they will throw away the SD. They will also be easy to lose at that size, which will mean being swept up in the cleaning and trashed. The SD becomes disposable... and the last thing this world needs is more disposable products (with non-degradable plastics and metals) to be landfilled.

You don't think people will keep the cards as backups? Do you throw your CDs in the trash once you rip them? If so, I bet one CD is worse than 10 MicroSD cards.

Also, don't get too hung up on the 1 GB size. Nothing prevents the record companies from bumping up the capacity to release a band's entire catalog, or release entire concerts.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, you can easily reuse these cards for other purposes (rolls of "film" for your digital camera, mailing photos that you don't want to put on the Internet, storing off-site backups of your PDA, etc.) if you no longer need them for the music.

Steve