Record Labels Take Albums To Memory Cards
SanDisk Corp., along with four major record labels and retailers Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are hoping to address the growing trend of digital music by selling albums on microSD memory cards rather than CDs.
Announced on Monday, the so-called “slotMusic” format could provide an additional stream of sales for those who now opt for digital copies over hard copies.
Currently, albums still sell more in a physical format ““ 449 million CDs sold in 2007, while 50 million sold digitally, according to Nielsen SoundScan. However, physical copies are becoming less popular. CD sales fell 19 percent over last year.
Record labels Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC hope that slotMusic will be a more versatile format than CDs.
Unlike when the CD was introduced and people had to buy new players, many people already have the ability to play slotMusic albums, since many cell phones and multimedia players support microSD cards.
"Particularly in this kind of economic climate, the idea of being able to use an electronic device you already own to enjoy music rather than going out and buying a dedicated player is pretty compelling," said Daniel Schreiber, who heads the audio-video business unit at SanDisk, which created the microSD card format and is working on the technology behind slotMusic.
Each album will sell on 1 gigabyte microSD cards, along with liner notes and cover art.
The cards and dongles will come in boxes similar to current CD packaging, and Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be "in the ballpark" of current CD prices.
Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s eLabs digital music unit, said the label will initially release about 30 titles in the slotMusic format. The titles will include old and new albums, such as one by singer Akon.
"We want to provide the benefits of digital music to people who go to physical retail environments," he said.
Asked whether he sees the format taking the place of the CD, Caraeff said, "I think we would certainly hope that would be the case, but I don’t think we are so tied to that."
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