(Mild Ambivalence / Somewhat Skeptical)
As reported and evaluated by the NYT and SAI, SanDisc has announced SlotMusic, a DRM free (sort of), 320kbps MP3, “album” format on MicroSD cards. While I don’t think this idea sucks, it’s also not terribly exciting to me, either as a music fan, or as a member of the industry. I give it two “Mehs,” sideways.
1. DRM Free. Cool, but is it really? In the description SanDisc also mentions the capability to listen to the songs a few times for free, before “unlocking” them with money. So there is some sort of DRM (which just stands for Digital Rights Management, despite more nefarious connotations). So, these MicroSDs will definitely have some way of “managing” the content, and if that is in place, my money is on some sort of restrictions. Can we make it so that it won’t play in a SCION?
2. 320 kbps. Great, I care, but since the primary retailer who signed on is WalMart, I’m going to guess that the audience for the available catalog of Kenny Chesney and Kenny Chesney will not care, know what a “bps” is, and think my tractor is sexy. Again, it’s no harder for them to make them 320, so I’m glad they did, but is it going to matter? Meh.
3. $10-15 Pricetag. Meh. The best part about this idea is that it’s being pitched not as a replacement for CDs, but instead as an additional accessory. The MicroSDs plug right into your mobile phone, and you can use the card afterward to erase and have a memory stick. The problem with that is as an accessory, for this audience, it has a lot of what they don’t care about (See above), and not much of what they do. Ferinstance: these would be a great impulse buy for people as a $2-$5 hit-single format. People could see the kiosk in WalMart, grab the new Alien Ant Farm single, and plug it into their phone before they even got back to their black Chevy Tahoe. However, the cost of the SD card prohibits selling the item at those prices. This leads me to an idea that I would get a boner over. Plug-and-buy jukeboxes in bars. For a buck you play the song, and get the song via USB or FireWire dangle. Drunks with Bucks = Impulse Buy. Take that to your VC.
This would be useful if any artist wanted to put their entire discography onto something simple and charge for it. Or put it in a Happy Meal. Or throw them from a Thanksgiving Parade float. Or stuff them under Tim Horton’s Roll-Up-The-Rim-To-Win cups.
Outside of those specific examples, this about as exciting as something that isn’t exciting…or even exciting.
>> “SanDisc also mentions the capability to listen to the songs a few times for free, before “unlocking” them with money.”
This is untrue, or at least you are reading press releases that I’ve not seen.
Please point me at the statements by SanDisk that say anything about “unlocking” anything for money.
Read the linked NYT Article.
Great, got it. Thanks