Big four labels adopt slotMusic memory cards for music sales

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 05:34

Your IT - Entertainment

High-end mobiles aren't the exclusive province of the young -'grannies and granddads' carry them too. Maybe those that use them are also buying their music online already.

Have you ever tried swapping microSD cards? The small size makes them fiddly to handle, so you wouldn't want to do anywhere it would be hard to spot a dropped card. And I'd hate to imagine people changing slotMusic cards while driving!

Some people are suggesting that the space provided by a 1G microSD card could more usefully be used to provide uncompressed CD quality. That's true, but what would be the point?

While the difference between a 128k and a 320k MP3 is fairly easy to hear, the comparison between 320k and uncompressed isn't so obvious, especially when listening through the low-quality speakers and earphones provided with most mobile devices, or in noisy environments.

The real point seems to be that slotMusic is a way for the music companies to move back to their traditional model of supplying product to a fairly large number of retailers.

The switch to downloads led to a concentration in the market that music executives have been clearly unhappy with - note the way most labels won't supply Apple's market-leading iTunes Store with unprotected files, while they will sell them through other online stores such as Amazon.

Putting out albums on slotMusic could make the labels less dependent on one or two online retailers.