SanDisk’s grand plan to revolutionise the music industry: selling individual albums preloaded onto SD cards, made by them, to be played on SD card players, made by them. The concept is definitely attractive in some ways. The tracks are 320Kbps, DRM-free MP3 files, the SD cards are reusable and the screenless slotMusic players costs next to nothing. Major label albums are priced at a competitive $US15, and can be played without the need for transfer from a computer, though you can load other SD cards with up to 16GB of music and play them, too.
Sandisk’s slotMusic cards are not much more than tweaked 1GB microSD cards with a logo and a special USB-compatible sled: but the fact that they’ll carry albums from big names like BMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group makes them interesting. They’ll also be DRM free too, which is a pleasant surprise. It’s an attempt to change the way some people buy MP3s—you’ll get a card you can slot into your mobile phone or PC with high-quality MP3s (up to 320kbps), artwork, videos and such, which you can also reuse as a 1GB memory card later, and that’s kinda handy.
