As Olivia Newton-John Sang, “Let’s Get Physical”

In a time when nearly everyone is moving to a means of digital distribution, Sansa is returning to the idea that selling music in bulk, in a physical form, is the way to go. The songs will be taken from Billboard lists, and currently number around one thousand tracks, but I wouldn’t expect the playlist to remain so small for very long, since the memory manufacturer is also revealing their new 16GB Mobile Ultra MicroSDHC card this month.

And to play this preloaded music? SanDisk would suggest the Sansa slotRadio that was announced last fall and left everyone speechless, but in a bad way. This little music player was most likely announced last fall with the full knowledge that SanDisk would announce preloaded music cards at this year’s CES, but the timing of the announcements still seems quite odd. If you’re in the market for an MP3 player now, and you aren’t completely sold on the idea of these preloaded music cards for $39.99, but you feel you might want to give them a try later, you might want to consider a Sansa Fuze, which is a currently-available player that is capable of playing these preloaded cards.

Oh, and lest we forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQXECBdPgEA

LAS VEGAS—When SanDisk announced its new Sansa slotMusic player last fall, the reaction from the media was lukewarm – why was SanDisk introducing a physical format-based player in the digital file era? A move to microSD cards preloaded with music seems to make more sense…