SanDisk Unveils ‘slotMusic’ – Smallest Albums Ever?

I realize full-well that I’m in the minority, but I love walking into a music store and picking up a fresh shrink-wrapped impossible-to-open-without-a-knife CD and going home to jam out. It’s just one of those things. I’m a purist, so I cannot bring myself to download lossy music, or even download lossless music if the option was there. I like ripping my own music and being done with it. But again, I’m in the minority.

Who’s not in the minority are the millions of people who LOVE services like iTunes and Amazon music, and in truth, I have no reason to blame them. Convenience is key, and it’s hard to disagree with. It sure does hurt hard-copy music sales though, which is one reason SanDisk is partnering up with four major music labels to launch a new format, called slotMusic.

slotMusic is music sold on a microSD card… and nothing more. I wish it was more interesting, but that’s it. Full albums will be pre-loaded in MP3 format (non-DRM!) and can be immediately played in your cell phone or MP3 player. Each “album” will include a USB sleeve so you can access the music on Windows, Linux or Mac, which leads me to assume you could also take the music off with no issue.

Definitely not to scale.

“slotMusic offers consumers an immediate, tangible, and high quality alternative to CDs and digital delivery,” said Danielle Levitas, vice president, Consumer, Broadband & New Media, IDC. “This year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by nearly an order of magnitude – and this trend is accelerating.”