Tech Watch: SlotMusic from SanDisk
Friday, 31 October 2008 20:02
All those self-proclaimed techies out there have no doubt already heard and weighed your opinions on the unveiling of S
lotMusic by the leading memory chip manufacturer, SanDisk. The company teamed up with the Big 4 record powerhouses (Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music Group, and Vivendi) to bring consumers full albums on a 1GB microSD card…DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. That means you can share, edit, erase, and move the once policed copyrighted material from your favorite artists at your will. SlotMusic is currently available in retail chains including BestBuy and WalMart with albums from artists like Usher, Nickleback, Chris Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Lynyrd Skynyrd. More artists are expected to be unveiled within the next few months.
We’ve seen SanDisk and the record companies take some big heat for this idea that should be changing the landscape of music and media. Our consensus, the pack of sheep out there are forgetting themselves and don’t understand the technology. So, let’s tackle a few arguments and see if we can free some minds for the preservation of independent thought:
“Stored media is dead – this is a pitiful last attempt by record companies to keep a dinosaur industry alive.” Ahem. Did you hear that the cards are completely DRM free??? This is anything but the record companies keeping their claws on the industry. DRM is something major artists and companies rallied around for years to keep their content proprietary. These cards are completely open and will allow you to do anything you want with the content…just try to keep away from any copyright infringement. And to the stored media nay-sayers…sure, we all love the internet. But until there will always be a need to keep some things in a tangible format for ease of access. Secondly, there is a ton of additional space on the album just waiting to be filled up! So keep downloading and keep filling. Simple as that.
“These cards retail at $14.99. If anything, iTunes has proved that consumers often just want the single. Why would anyone go out and purchase a card for $15 instead of buying just the song?” Another popular argument with no basis. Are these people forgetting that for that $15 consumers are getting the full album from their favorite artists and 1 GB, yes, GIGABYTE worth of memory? Each SlotMusic card is also packaged with a USB reader to turn the extra space into an instant jump drive for any other junk you want to load on – if you’re a super fan you’ll just fill up the space with extra album art and music videos from the artist. But, we’ll leave that up to you to decide once you bounce back to the school of independents.
“The cards don’t even work with the iPod or iPhone.” EXACTLY. It’s about time someone realizes that Apple devices are the only devices out there that lock their users out from using anything other than Apple products. In case you are new to the microSD technology, it is this great little card about the size of a pinkie nail that packs a crazy amount of storage capacity (SanDisk recently released the 16GB microSD card and we’re sure there’s more to follow). The technology is totally universal and can be plugged straight into your digital camera, computer, most cell phones today (save for the iPod of course) and mp3 players. Isn’t that crazy that you’d want to be able to save everything in one spot for use in all your devices no matter who makes them? For those that need an illustration; take your favorite album on your card, put it in your phone so you can set your favorite tracks as ringtones and album art as wallpapers, pull the card out at work and plug into your computer to keep the music going, take your important files and load back to the card and into your phone for quick access for email or presentations while your out for meetings, and eventually, put it back into your phone or mp3 to sync up to your car speakers to pass the time as you wait through the traffic jam on the way home. Or, just use the technology in your phone to access all your content so you don’t have to keep switching devices!
Clearly, we think it’s a hit but we’ll leave it up to you to decide.
