Forget buying an album on a USB stick, SanDisk just convinced the big labels to release (DRM free, thankfully) music on a 1 GB 15mm x 11mm x 1mm microSD card. And then they convinced Best Buy and Walmart to sell these things. Check out slotMusic for more.
I wish wish wish I could see the power point presentation SanDisk used to pitch everyone on the idea.
The New York Times says a source puts the album price at $7-$10, which is amazing given that the retail price of the SanDisk microSD card alone is currently about $8.50. Included with every purchase is a USB converter, which adds more to the price. Sure, profit margin is built into that price, but it still doesn’t leave much for the labels. My suspicion is the price will be higher, perhaps even more than actual CDs.
USB drives seem like a much more reasonable way to distribute music. All computers support USB, and they’re a lot harder to lose than a fingernail sized flash drive. But the people behind slotMusic are betting that mobile phones, many of which have microSD slots, will drive sales. Buy the album at Walmart and listen to it as you leave the store.
Except that won’t happen, since free on-demand streaming music is also available many phones with a browser through services like iMeem and, later this week, MySpace Music. Hell, I can watch virtually any music video ever recorded with my iPhone on Youtube in about three clicks. A much better business model is to sell mobile users the song as a download if they like the stream, or an even higher-margin ringtone.
Get one of these while they last, because they’ll be collectors items by this time next year. The future of music is free streaming and (also free, eventually) downloads, not physical media.
First I was like, jokes on them. Most of the memory slots on phones are already preoccupied with a memory card.
Then I realized they’re positioning this as an impulse buy for consumers that have no memory cards to begin with or someone that just bought a shiny new phone at BestBuy and are glancing through the rows of memory cards.
The sales drone would probably push these and say “oh, these are great cause you get to have an album as well!” A wonderful value-add! Oh boy, those sly MBA kids at Sandisk.
What’s more stupid of course is that they’re creating inventory dictated by fast moving trends with extremely low margins to justify any of it. Real smart.
Some time ago, SanDisk announced write once SD cards. ( Here’s one reference: http://gizmodo....-last-100-years ) These were significantly cheaper than the RW versions, certainly less than $8.50. I believe they were saying $2-$3 range.
Of course, are these SDmicro cards in fact RW at all? Perhaps they’re RO, that would be even less expensive.
I guess the impulse buy idea could work, each time you realise you’ve lost your album because it slipped under a stamp somewhere you can pick up another one at the supermarket checkout.
I’d never buy one, but really I don’t have any desire to physically “touch” my music ever again. Like you said, I can get everything I need online via a streaming service or even iTunes.
exactly, the streaming service is the future, not a sdmicro
OK but what if you want a new SD card for your phone or camera,
which one are you going to buy?
the one with nothing on it or the one with free music
The one with nothing on it. Didn’t Iomega try putting software on their “blank” zip disks ages ago?
I’ll take the one without the Sony rootkit. Forget the free music, the last thing I need when buying a flash memory card is wondering whether I can trust it.
I wonder if people will buy these just as a cheap memory stick that seems to be partly subsidised by the labels. Buy the album and then reformat for your data as soon as you get home. It’s a shame that you can’t buy multiple albums on a 4GB or 8GB version of this.
go to dsados.com that’s our idea from last year ancient history
I personally hate all this download trend, when I pay for an album or DVD I like to have something in my hands rather than just a file on my pc. I enjoy having a collection and seeing what Ive spent my money on. Also you dont have to worry as much about losing your collection if its a physical medium.
LOL? How’s that 1×1″ album art?
Cover art is mostly good for quickly picking out what you want from a large collection. 1×1″ is good enough for Cover Flow on iPhone. If you want a better view get a 30″ monitor and stare at the 1425×1425-pixel image in iTunes, it’ll be a lot nicer than a 5×5″ CD cover with mediocre print job.
What it lacks in tactile feel it makes up for in responsiveness. Try skipping to a random song (or album) in a 1000-album library in under 5 seconds with ANY physical media.
I don’t like all this “buy music online” thing. The quality is not as far as good (expect if it’s one of those iTunes Plus Songs) than when you buy a CD and rip it yourself. I also get Album Art, a booklet, a jewel case – damn, I might be old fashioned but it’s the real deal. Some CD’s and vinyls are pieces of art. What if Apple is having some upgrade issue again, and all your expensive music is lost forever? I don’t trust them! I just got two ska-punk albums shipped from the US (via musicstack) to Germany. Converted to euros, I payed (shipping included) even less than if I would have bought the albums on iTunes (one of them wasn’t even offered on iTunes)… Naaaw – I like having a backup in my cupboard
I still buy CD’s but it’s not because of the physical media. It’s because I want a lossless copy of the music ripped to my server. I have a pretty high end system and I prefer a server based setup because you don’t have to deal with scratched CD’s, hunting through your collection to find the disc you want, and with teh right setup you can get playback quality on par with a $5,000 CD transport for a fraction of the cost.
With that said… I’m also a pretty heavy Rhapsody user. Rhapsody is an awesome music discovery tool and if anything it’s caused me to spend thousands of dollars on music from artists I wouldn’t have otherwise spent.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Sometimes I feel bad about downloading music for free, then I read something like this and I think they totally deserve it.
Instead of soaking up extra Flash memory with this bogus scheme, how about leaving it for Apple to build a 128GB iPhone. When you pay for the extra Flash memory, you get to fill it for free from the iTunes store.
By the way, a CD only holds a maximum of 650MB of uncompressed audio data, that’s the standard. On a 1GB card there will be at least 350MB empty space. Can you guess what people will fill it with? BitTorrent perhaps?
This is obviously going to be the next mini-disk. If CD sales are falling, why would this be any different?
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I wonder if the labels will include any advertising in this in order to make up for the margins.
Again, REMOVE DRM FROM THE PICTURE!!!!!
In this implementation, there is no DRM, at least for now.
While i don’t think this is necessarily the best idea, it is still probably cheaper than buying an album and downloading it over-the-air at current wireless data costs (at least here in Canada). That means it’s at best a short term ‘fix’, but it’s interesting none the less. I sure won’t be buying it though…
http://www.sama...amadingdong.com
they come with a ***free*** real tiny SD-rack
Hey! How about privacy. Every time you make a connection with a remote server for digital streaming, your trusting that only the music data is being downloaded.
Your offering your cell phone and all its contents to whoever wants to know a little bit more about your likes and dislikes! Remember, at the heart of your sacred cell device, is a micro computer, subject to malicious invasion!
Weird , I already have such business for past 8 months it’s just that I am not selling mp3’s or albums. I sell series that is most watch by European people.
Card cost 1gb $9 transfer file $0 = $23+tax Profit:$10 per card after shipping
ummm yea, but thats illegal – these guys are actually paying the royalties on what theyre loading onto the USBs
rofflez
what makes you so sure it’s the music labels taking a hit on margin versus SanDisk?
Bart: “Hootie and the Blowfish?”
Wiggum: Yeah. It’s cheaper than blank tape.
More garbage. Computers are supposed to reduce the garbage. My dad tells me that this is another example of capitalism stinking up the car on the way home from a good idea. They just can’t let go of their solid objects. Gotta have things cause they make me feel like a bona fide human being consumer thing a ma jig.
Yeah!!! i love microSD
What’s so clever about selling music on a USB stick? So I buy 20 albums and I get 20 sticks to leave around my place unused and then eventually throw into a landfill… genius.
USB stick or microSD – they’re both more wasteful than a CD and obviously infinitelyy moreso than a download. I think quite a few people on the planet would appreciate it if companies stopped manufacturing so much plastic crap.
Actually if you rip music to MP3 it’s no different than buying 20 CDs. You also get 20 discs that can be thrown into a landfill, but many people will argue that a CD is different from a SD and I can partially see their point.
My point is that all this USB converter and SD cards thing is a waste of electronics. Just buy the very same files online, download them and do with them exactly what you’ll do with the files on the SD cards: store them on you HD, backup them, send them to friends, exchange them on P2P networks (yeah, I know some of this is illegal but it will happen) or whatever.
Well, at least many people will reuse those cards as extra memory for their phones. You couldn’t do that with CDs.
“Buy the album at Walmart and listen to it as you leave the store.”
Might have a chance if cars had an SD slot…
Could be sort of cool though if you could flip through your music collection exactly like an Itunes cover flow.
Oh noes! I don’t know where a Walmart is! If only I could download the music instead. I wouldn’t even have to GO to Walmart!
If you live in San Francisco, the closest Wal-Mart is like 45 minutes away in Fremont. Tower Records closed both their locations years ago. I wouldn’t even know where people buy music anymore except for Amoeba and Aquarius. Starbucks?
While you’re thinking about MicroSD for your car, how about one of those 50’s-style jukeboxes, where a tiny arm pulls out a tiny SD card and drops it into a slot…
Just found my next make project: jukebox for my hamster.
Hm, that’s funny… Just yesterday I was thinking “Why don’t somebody release music on Micro-SD?” and now I read this.
I think it’s a good Idea. It costs practically nothing to build these things nowerdays ($8.50 retail price is rubbish, you can get’m cheaper and that’s already with a profit margin, so the actual costs might be around $4 or less), many mobile phones using MicroSD is a good point as well, and if the MicroSD come with this kind of USB adapter then it’s definitely better than a “normal” USB stick thingy…
Also of course you can re-use the memory, even though it’s only 1GB. Something around $8 would be a fair price for that for both industry and consumer, IMHO.
What a stupid post! Of COURSE people are going to buy these. I think it’s a brilliant idea and major kudos to SanDisk. Streaming songs requires a constant connection that may not be possible or affordable. Plus, there are actually a TON of cellphone users that don’t buy data but have phones that use MicroSD.
USB by comparison is not at all an impulse buy. If you want to use them you will probably put them on your computer, in which case you could just buy them from iTunes or something. On a cellphone you would have to copy them which is not at all easy for a LOT of cellphones.
Good job Sandisk! Hope you do well with it. Techcrunch…wake up.
Hey look – that’s a non-iPhone user. You can tell because he has to carry around his music tiles in a little side-pouch…
yeah and when your moms goes to the store to get you
your cereal i bet she gets you the one with the free toy
in it iphone user. this is just the same thing,
a good marketing move by sandisk
This is a smart move for cell phone owners, but the problem is they should have included the full WAV version along with the lossy web quality MP3 stuff.
Sansdisk is only using this as a way to sell memory cards with enough space on it to illegally download and save 19 more albums on it.
Again, the four major labels are the suckers for another hardware companies intentions of making money on the long haul… the labels are so desperate they will license to anyone with some money and a secret motive.
This just might be the best idea. First of all, we as humans love our physical media. Years ago, everyone claimed ebooks would kill off books and newspapers and that never happened. Not due to technology, but the love we have of holding something. The CD is the same thing for many. We don’t all want streaming music, some of us actually appreciate music and want to buy it to support the artist. But we need a new format.
Secondly, we need a format for mobile users, that’s the next generation. SD cards is perfect. Future mobile devices like ipods will need to be changed to accept this format if it gets popular. We won’t need to buy a cd, come home and rip it, then load it on our mp3 player. Some players include the sd slot already like Cowon.
I’m not that old and enjoy buying CD’s of favorite artists. I download some one hit wonders only. I don’t believe that all the younger generation downloads music for free and will never grow up and appreciate high quality audio on any medium. That’s hard to believe that everyone will be streaming free music or download free tunes, and that’s the future. Put that in the same bag as ebook believers!
the ebook argument could be used against the kindle, not this.
there is no pretty book with a hardcover or CD case involved here.
nothing is pretty, you can’t showcase your collection with a bunch of little ass sd cards.
they would be better off with in store kiosks where you can download and dump DRM free music to your own media, but even that would fail.
it amazes me that shit like this could get off the ground.
I think this is a bad idea. The users dont need lot of card.
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I agree it’s not for everyone, just like ebook readers are not. But the world is not made of techies and early adopters which this format isn’t for. Some of us enjoy a balance of streaming/downloading music & physical media.
It’s not like I’m going to start replacing my current library of CD’s/LP’s/Cassette’s to this format, this will probably be more of an impulse buy as some have stated. If it becomes popular, then all new devices will have this slot, and most do already.
This is the mobile generation and mobile users need a physical medium until we have wifi working close to 100% everywhere (just like cell data transmission) to stream music. And that isn’t going to happen any time soon.
I changed my mind about this since I first heard it early this morning… It’s 320 kbps quality, it’s already ripped-and-ready in drm free files, and it’s available for me to buy at my convenience. At least to me personally, that’s all positives.
I predict a modest success. Not a game changer though. But still maybe indicative of the direction the music industry is trying to go.
And despite the consensus among all tech bloggers that selling music content is dead, I dont’ believe music companies/artists should surrender their IPR just yet. Counter-measures, new attitudes and new technologies may yet change things from this current state of instant-gratification driven lawlessness/heaven.
This is awesome! I can’t wait to try it on my iPhone!
Wait… I don’t have a SM slot in my iPhone.
At least I can use it on my Mac! Wait… no SM slot there either.
Nuts. I don’t have a single device that can use SMs! Oh Noes! I’ll have to buy all new stuff just so I can buy more stuff!
Oh wells, gotta go. Just finished downloading HD IronMan. Can’t wait to buy that on SM! Oh noes. I forgot I can’t use SM. I’m so dumb.
“The card will also come with a USB sleeve so it can be plugged in directly to any USB-enabled computer.” (From C|net.com) It can be used on any computer. Like I said, if the format becomes popular, Apple will have to change their designs to accommodate the market.
“Hey Matt. Your client folder is down, and I none of us can see your iTunes music anymore.”
“Yeah man, too bad. I just got this awesome new San Disc that I had to play, so I unplugged my external 1.5TB drive.”
“Really? Is that San Disk awesome?”
“I dunno. My mom bought it for me as a stocking stuffer for Christmas. Ever hear of Barbra Streisan? Maybe she’s french new wave…”
How about this:
You go to the music store, you find an album you want, and then either you buy it in CD format, or you go to the counter and there, you hand over you own USB stick/microSD/SD card/external hard drive/phone/what not, and they upload the album you bought in MP3 format from their MP3 inventory onto your device and off you go.
Wouldn’t that be the best of both worlds?
Sounds like a good alternative but I can’t imagine the retail stores wanting to invest into a new service. Easier to get the employees unload the products and hang them on hooks.
I think I’ll just stick with CDs. They work fine for me, and they rip onto my computer. This is a strange step in the progression of how music is non-digitally distributed…
Jake
NoteScribe: Premier Note Taking Software
I hear what you are saying, but remember that there are a lot of people that have bought cellphones that play mp3 but they have no clue how to get them on their phones other than an expensive download.
This method makes a lot of sense for the less-technical.
i think its a good idea in countries where laptops/wifi/3g are not common but mobile phones plentiful, people could be induced to buy the music pay for it and stick it into their phones. its not a progressive idea and it will die in its due course but there is enough money to be made in such ideas for people to stop abandoning them. what better way to create demand for memory sticks.
I would never recommend that you take a powerful magnet into the music aisle at Walmart…
MicroSD? It’s a pain in the ass to insert a microsd card into my Blackberry Curve….You have to remove the battery and then screw around with the card slot.
At least we Curve users have the slot compared to iPhone users.
It is a monumental pain in the ass on the Pearl as well. MicroSD is about as user friendly as a do it yourself root canal.
Good thing !
Can someone tell me why the Tech Crunch guys think they know everything there is to know about the future of music? Last I checked, they were never rock stars.
The Tech Crunch crowd is a gaggle of failed VCs, failed lawyers and failed CEOs of a string of failed companies desperately trying to make a few bucks on the periphery of the VC biz by publishing a blog and holding a few conferences with a bunch of dinky start-ups that will never come public.
Those who can’t do – teach. Those who can’t teach – write.
So, by writing this doesn’t that mean…ah, nvm.
This is a redo of a 2005 attempt with Sandisk and the Rolling Stones. This time w/o DRM. I’m surprised people don’t remember the previous attempt. Okay maybe it wasn’t successful enough to remember:
http://news.cne...39192708,00.htm
Why is this news? or more importantly, were there lessons from the 2005 effort that people are ignoring this time around?
For anyone that really cares here’s the original idea we pitched to SanDisk. DSADOS.com
This is about as useful as selling music on minidiscs.
Music industry us guys are your future!
Create departments in each label that harbors music startups and innovation. Do not sue the little guys out of business… we are your future, especially as mobile broadband and iPhone like devices become ubiquitious!
>>I Can’t Believe The Labels Fell For This?
Why not – they have shown NO aptitude for understanding how digitization of their content has changed their industry.
THEY LIVE IN THE PAST.
The only way I can use an SD card in my phone is to take out the card that stores all my phone numbers and pictures. Why would I want to lose my phone numbers just so I can listen to an album?
What if I want to listen to more than one album? Do I have to go back to my computer during a party every time the music ends and fumble around with tiny SD cards that will get lost? Are they going to make a SD-changer?
Physical music is dead, regardless of format. If people are not going to the store to buy shiny plastic circles, they will not go to the store to buy tiny black squares.
Physical music began its death when the album art was no longer big enough to see.
I forgot to mention, Wirte-only memory brings the cost of these SD cards down to just the price of the black plastic case.
I was going to say that they could cut down on writing off unsold inventory as an expense by rewriting different music on the cards that didn’t sell, but if they’re not rewritable, forget it.
Music is an experience. I’ve read some comments above and I know everyone has there own opinion and observation of the music industry. Music is an “artform” and used to be accompanied by “artwork” with the album, then tape, CD (I left 8 tracks out for a reason). I’m a designer. I believe in the power of visuals as well as the audible experience. I love to (as someone else mentioned) see what I spent my money on. I like to know it is there. Physically. Though music is an audible and often visual experience, it should be tactile. I hope we begin to appreciate and look forward to buying a CD – WITH THE ARTWORK. I hope all doesn’t get lost. I also hope you read this far. I have ideas, they can make you money if you are in the music business. Contact me at joeallen@optonline.net
Best
Joe Allen
Here is why this is going to fail again:
1- DRM
2-Price will be too high to be interesting.
3-Tell me why in the world would I want to swap micro-sd cards everytime that I want to change my music?! I rather have a larger micro-sd card and have most of my music on it than just a single album
Too expensive for me!
Would I surprise anyone if I say I can pick up 10 1GB MicroSD cards for ~21 GBP (please convert it to your currency yourself) (but online of cause)? If stores can sell it at such a low price, and still make a profit, I won’t be surprised that SanDisk wil sell the mSD to the labels for less than 1 pound per card. In fact, I am quite surprised to see that a 1GB microSD costs 8.50$USD!
Having said what I said, I’m not saying this idea is definitely going work. It is interesting to watch it will turn out.
But I was merely expressing how surprised I was to see that you have not taken the most competitive price but a price which is not at all appealing to any IT person who knows where to look.