slotMusic - The best we could hope for?

Take an old concept, put it onto a new medium ( ... OK, not really new) and think it is a great new idea. This WTF-moment was brought to me by SanDisk in association with this big 4 (SonyBMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner Music) this morning. slotMusic is that "new" idea and it's all about using microSD cards as replacement for the good old CDDAs. Honestly, the idea is in my opinion not completely bad, especially since -- probably thanks to some extra-terrestrial influence -- the music will be stored as 320Kbps MP3s without DRM. As Michael Arrington I'm totally baffled how SanDisk could convince the 4 labels to do that.

According to the New York Times albums will be sold on this medium for between 7 and 10 USD, which is cheap as hell compared to how much albums cost here in the EU (14EUR). Now I really hope that this offer will make its way over the Atlantic so that I'm no longer forced to use iTunes or going to the local store to pay even more for music (at least there is AmieStreet :D ).

On the other hand, the record labels seem really to be scared as hell about the amount of money they could make for selling individual songs online ;-) And before I forget it: SanDisk's marketing department seems to work on their own Reality Distortion Field:

slotMusic cards enable consumers to instantly and easily enjoy music from their favorite artists without being dependent on a PC or internet connection. [slotmusic.org]

Hint: Right, you are now dependant on the nth flash card format generously bundled with an USB-plug to be able to use with your PC ;-) But don't get me wrong. I like small flash mediums and even more so if they are cheaper than other physical media, have more storage and come with non-DRM'd content; especially when put into some Kellog's Chocos box where they look exactly like the breakfast ;-)