Blog: Mousetrap Technology
Despite the slow death of sales of music on physical media, a new format was
launched today backed by the big four music companies.
Sandisk unveiled its “slotMusic” format
- pre-loaded albums on microSD memory cards smaller than a postage stamp.
The launch comes in the face of the soaring popularity of music downloads
online and the declining popularity of CDs.
Sandisk, the world’s biggest supplier of flash memory-based data storage
cards, has the backing of EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and
Warner Music Group.
The memory cards will go on sale next month, initially in the United States
where they will cost around $15 - about the same as a CD.
Retailing giants Wal-Mart and Best Buy have agreed to stock the new format.
Each SlotMusic card will contain an album, plus extras. Artists expected to
feature in the first wave of releases include Rihanna, Weezer, Usher, Leona
Lewis and Elvis Presley.
The songs come in the MP3 format, with no digital locks that prevent copying.
SlotMusic cards can be played on mobile phones, PCs and some portable MP3
players equipped with a microSD card slot or a USB port.
A USB adapter is included allowing users to plug in their cards to the range
of electronic items that now have USB ports, which include televisions,
luxury cars and laptops.
The SlotMusic cards will have 1 gigabyte of memory 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.
Most of all, Sandisk hope to take advantage of the huge growth of
music-playing mobile phones. Many recent models come with a microSD card
slot.
“Most non-iPod MP3 players already have card slots in them. Music-capable
phones with card slots are selling at a rate of 750 million a year,” said
Daniel Schreiber, a senior vice president at SanDisk.
He agreed that albums sold on CD were falling - sales of albums on CDs dropped
nearly 19 per cent last year - but insisted physical formats were still
popular.
According to Nielsen research 449 million were sold on CDs in 2007, while 50
million were sold digitally.
“The CD is dying, but rumors of its death are perhaps somewhat premature,” Mr
Schreiber said.
But despite the impressive backing for the new format, many commentators said
yesterday that the market, especially among younger music lovers, was
switching decisively to online downloading of songs via sites including
Apple’s iTunes.
Earlier this year the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the largest
music retailer in the world.
Perhaps crucially for the success of the new format, Apple’s market-leading
MP3 players - the range of iPods and iPhones - are not capable of playing
SlotMusic cards.
Also the SlotMusic format does not address the growing trend among downloaders
to buy only the songs they like, one at a time, for about 79p each.
The big music companies are hoping the format will provide an extra revenue
stream while they struggle against illegal music sharing.
Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s eLabs digital
music unit, said: “We want to provide the benefits of digital music to
people who go to physical retail environments.”
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.”
A Sandisk spokesman said that the slotMusic format would be available in the
UK by the end of the year. No pricing or featured artist details were
available yet, he added.
