The end of music CDs?

It's gotta be a short fad. Something this small is going to get lost or break too easily. Not to mention, you can't use it in the car, and many phones don't have a slot for this. If you use an Ipod instead of MP3 player, you can't use it either. Then again, that's why you would have an Ipod instead. I don't think it will last..

Second to last sentence in the article; Micro SD players for our cars.

NOT so far off, actually! Major after-market car stereo manufacturers, such as Pioneer and Kenwood, have started including built-in USB capabilities in most of their head units. This enables one to plug in their MP3 players, and have music available for even the longest cross-country forays! (If you have a full 80gb iPod classic, you could drive from San Diego, California to Bangor, Maine and never miss a beat!)

With the advent of Slot Music, all you actually need is a small USB card reader to interface it with the afore-mentioned decks, and viola! As for Slot Music's viability in the 21st century music marketplace, to quote a lyric from musical group Asia, "Only Time Will Tell"...

Even to call it a "fad" is overstating the case. It's a non-starter. People who are interested in flash-based music are going to buy (or just download free) the files they want, and load them on their media player. Lest we forget the obvious, by the way, the most popular media player in the world – iPod – doesn't accept removable flash media.

This idea of "music on a flash disk to replace rotating media" has been thrown around since at least 1999, and is even less sensible now than it was then. The CD is dead, yes, but it was replaced by downloadable music, not by yet another physical format.

SM is a short-term boost to the bottom line of flash vendors. It will never have significant sales.

We continually sacrifice music quality for convenience. First they replace vinyl with CD. Vinyl, when made properly and played on a decent turntable, sounds so much more musical and real. With improvements in DACs CDs are approaching vinyl musical quality. And formats like SuperAudio rival most vinyl copies. Sadly it is compressed crappy mp3 that will be the next medium. Don't get me wrong, mp3 is a great replacement for walkmans and most car audio systems. Try listening to mp3s on your home stereo (which most people don't even own anymore). There is so much missing, especially at 128 or 160kbps. 360kbps is the absolute minimum in my opinion. There are lossless formats from Apple and the FLAC format which sound just as good as CD but they only reduce the file size in half. Of course in the era of cheap terabyte hard drives file size shouldn't even matter. In fact you can stream full CD quality wav files over a modest wireless system. Unless you have over 1000 CDs a 500 GB or 1 TB drive should hold the material just fine.

What a waste you can download music from the internet even your phone. Who is going to use this someone who does not have internet access but have a computer ? The music business is over

Slot Music will not be a true replacement for CDs, nor will it be successful. Downloads have changed the music industry's business model (for the worse), and Slot Music will not help solve the continuing decline of permanent media music sales. Consumers have largely foresaken audio quality for convenience, preferring to use an iPod and ear buds as opposed to a high quality sound system. Super Audio CDs provide much higher sound quality than conventional CDs, MP3s, or iPod tracks, yet they've been shoved out of existence. Consumers by and large don't really care or know what good sound actually is. It's a shame.

If downloads are going to be the primary method to accessing music, then they need to have SACD quality, along with a standardized download format that allows for all of the content on a Slot Music card, but without the Slot Music card. It should be usable on an iPod, Mac, PC, PS3, or whatever the player is. It needs to be universal, but without the physical media.

For completely uncompressed, analog-like sound, the Blu-ray music profile is available for physical media and should be used. 2.0 stereo, 5.1, or 7.2 channel surround sound, with audio quality comparable to Super Audio CDs.

Great, NOW, how am I going to sit around and leaf through the liner notes and cover art? I am an old enough dog that I lived more years in the vinyl world than I have the digital world, and am still lamenting the loss of widely available new music vinyl. The depth and breadth of what the album could do for the music experience was eroded by the CD (only some artists got it), and now will be even further eroded by the micro SD card (additional content notwithstanding).

Now, I'll have to squint at a small electronic screen carried in my pocket or sit in front of my computer for the full experience?

Nah...

Finally!

Music in a tiny, portable, easy-to-lose format!

"Hey, has anyone seen the new Phish CD?"
"Check in the couch."

How, exactly, is this better than digital music downloads? The great thing about digital content is that it is freeing us from the need to own little pieces of plastic and metal in order to get all sorts of content. Creating ultra-tiny memory cards is only another feeble attempt by companies to squeeze the last little drop of revenue out of physical media formats. Don't be fooled, people! Either hold onto your CDs for a little while longer, or bite the bullet and start getting your music digitally. This is not the future of music...this is the past dressed up in new clothing.

This is the stupidest idea in the history of the music business. People download music for convenience, not because they want prefer mp3s to CDs. If you have to go to the store to buy music, why would you buy this instead of the CD?

Is this just another way to lower the quality of the music that is available to the consumer? Mp3's suck and so does any compression media.

This is both the end of CDs and slot cards will become a short fad, just like the laser-disc, DAT, or mini-disc. The record industry is grasping at straws for physical albums when the trend is moving almost exclusively towards completely electronic and on-line format of music. Nifty technology, but the industry would be better off sticking with development of online methods of distributing and selling music. The album is quickly becoming a thing of the past and the music industry is so desperately trying to hold on to it. –Kind of like the auto industry and the SUV's...

This is a short lived thing, and will not be around long at all.

The music buying demographic simply doesn't want a physical product any longer. It's iTunes, downloading for free, or nothing. PERIOD.

The record companies should've rethought their pricing structure before the age of the MP3 arrived. Although better prices on CD's (R.I.P) wouldn't have stopped the inevitable takeover of the MP3 it very well may have added a few more years of solid physical product sales.

Way too little way too late. Yeah, the CD is dead, but who wants to keep track of a bunch of tiny cards? We have ipods and mp3 players. Who needs this?

short fad, hopefully

It's definitely been coming... CD's are an old way of distributing music. Album, Tape, CD... they have all just been a means to deliver to the listeners the music. Now that our music devices have rapidly changed, it's time for the distribution method to change.

There will always be a large number of people who value the physical product, with artwork etc. I use iTunes and it's great, but I still prefer the package that is a CD. There are still vinyl collectors out there also. Many blame the internet and downloading for the American record industry's decline and drop in album sales, but the simple fact is the cookie-cutter bands they are trying to force feed the public stink – a lot of us just won't spend money on such poor products.

short fad, ala sony mini-disc

Slot Music is so silly.

Music distribution is digital, and has been since the advent of CD's – and once MP3's became available for sale through download from proven outlets like iTunes, Virgin, Audio Lunchbox, etc, the need to purchase a physical item really went away. This is actually good, because manufacturing and pollution is reduced, and so is what ends up in landfills.

But it's also bad business for brick and mortar stores with inventory who must have a physical thing to sell us. If CD sales are waning, maybe they can sell us this new slot music thing, along with the reader/player needed to use it.

But really, it's oversell, and just a waste of packaging, materials and labor... If the stores want to sell something, sell the *service* of downloading it to a consumer's digital device or CD.

CD's aren't going away unless manufacturers decide they are. People now burn and use their own CD's constantly – they just don't purchase them like they once did.

So, do I carry around 200 of these slot disks or just one mp3 player that already has all that music (and can include at least cover art and possibly more)?
If I can load this into my computer, then I transfer it to my mp3 player for convenience and "give" this disk to the next Joe.
Seems like some on-line retailers already offer DRM-free songs and albums. Maybe not a full catalog, but hey, we're only a few years into this thing.
This seems like a step backwards. Well done, dinosaur - er, music industry.
Pat

Music CDs have long been dead, in my opinion. Although this Sandisk slot music memory chip goes a long way in terms of portability, I personally don't want to be tied to buying a full album. Why do that when I can cherry-pick at Amazon, Rhapsody, and iTunes?

I tell you what with the price of CD's hovering at $25-$30, I dont think the record execs have learned a thing. CD's would sell a hell of a lot more if they went down to a reasonable $10.00. I cant imagine what they will charge for a mini SD card with some crap on it, I imagine a cost of around $40.00 for a stupid cd's worth of music.

The industry just does not seem to learn a thing. People started downloading the music not because they could now get it free, no its because you go to the record store and see these STUPID prices. A cd costs pennies to make. Its the cheapest media there is, and yet it is costing more, in FACT way more than what they are worth. If you want to save the music industry STOP THE GREED and LOWER THE PRICES to a reasonable $10.00.

Oh the reply will be "they cant". Ok great, good bye music industry. GET WITH THE TIMES OR LOSE EVERYTHING!! Its horrible with what these execs are doing. GREED is the order of the day. If they would sell for far less than what they are selling they would SELL MILLIONS of more CD's!! Believe me I prefer to own a cd with all the art, and the inserts with some depth. Another horrible thing that killed the industry is the business getting cheap and making cheap booklets, or not any at all.

ITS SIMPLE!! I only hope that someone listens to this.

The folks who talk about convenience and death of the album format are right. There are many of us though that are into the quality of the audio as much as the content. Why not focus on non-compressed distribution, which gives us convenience, quality, etc? Storage capacity is there in devices.

There are lots of people to blame for the issue here. Labels for putting out trash, consumers who like the trash and buy into the culture of music (Post-80's MTV culture), and music pirate kiddies who think everything in the world should be free. It's hard for artists making good music to get it out there because everyone wants everything for free and they don't understand the costs behind making music. It supposedly just appears out of thin air.

It's a nice little piece of hardware. I doubt, though, that CD sales are down because CDs are too big.

They will never take off- it's all about downloading music now. I will never buy a CD again- or a little plastic card. Plus, why buy MORE plastic when I can buy it digitally? It's better for the environment- I don't even have to use gas to go buy music anymore!

That just means I'm going to have to buy the White Album again.

Who needs these Slot Music tiny cards when you have iPods that can hold hundreds of albums?

Imagine driving on the highway and you just finished listening to one of your SM albums and now want to listen to your newest aquisition, and while trying to change SM album you accidentaly drop the one you want to listen and it falls right in between your seat and the center console. What now?

There is no droping your 100+ GB iPod after you plug it in, it only takes a few clicks to get to that new album you want to listen to.

SM is just another Music Industry fart.

What about the quality of the music? Is it CD quality or MP3 quality? Would hate to lose the fidelity of CDs.

I don't think the issue has been CDs becoming aged. For music, they are still quite fine. Of course for those really wanting the absolute best quality music, perhaps they could release music on DVDs (in fact there is a music DVD standard out there). The main issue is that people simply don't want to keep paying such high amounts for music when they can either download it illegally for free or purchase it through iTunes for 99 cents a song and get only the songs they want. Albums should cost three or four dollars and not twelve or fifteen or even higher. I'm sorry but people need to realize that today, people's mp3 players are filled with thousands upon thousands of songs and I'd say 70% of them are probably pirated. It's just the world we are living in. People have better things to do with their money right now, that's for sure.

Music SD cards would be the A-tracks of my generation. It would never last. The new format is no format at all. Why buy a micro sd card album when you can just download it and store it on your hard drive or iPod? why bother purchasing some kind of SD card player when you can just hook your iPod or even your cell phone up to your stereo system? Or even listen to satalite radio in your car? No, the record stores of the future will contain highspeed ports to download your music to your playing device, and maybe sell vinyl for the collectors. There just isn't any place in the world for a new physical format for records. It isn't logical.

I think it's a interesting idea and has at least some chance of success.

Coming out with this format that many existing devices already support was a really smart idea, many folks will give it a try who wouldn't have bothered if they had to buy a new gadget to play them with.

Maybe an overrated iPod can't play these things but a lot of players can, as can many laptops.

CD quality music non copy protected music in a format most of us can play. So you can browse the "record" isle find something new, and then plug it into your MP3 player to listen to right away and then copy it into your collection and add whatever songs you want to your play list.

Buying downloads is fine, but maybe I'm old fashioned but it's nice to have a real, physical something in return for my money, and that is a BIG advantage of these over downloads. Plus if you download something and then your hard drive crashes you've more than likely lost it, while if you had purchased your music on Slot Music cards you would still have it.

Another gimmick to resell music I'll stick with my records and cassette tapes (and some CDs)

SHORT SIGHTED PEOPLE. Flash Media, MP3 Players and even good Hard Drives will eventually fail. You can eat off a CD, wash it, and pop it into the player and enjoy. Comparitively, the CD media is a freaking tank to all these little whimpy storage media.So far the CD is strongest and longest lasting digital format available. I wish it weren't so, but these guys are going to have to re-invent the wheel – again. And Damon – I have the White album on LP, Cassette, CD and MP3 – I feel you. I will not be purchasing it again. All these guys that have gotten there music for free are on the verge of using the credit the old timers built up buying the same music over and over – and over. Keep listening.

I'm keeping my ipod. The SD cards will be another fad and I echo many of the sentiments already written. Digital downloads (legally) are the way to go. And as far as audio quality goes, not much beats vinyl or reel to reel in IMHO.

Actually the next big thing is terrabyte sized hard drive MP3 players LOL. Lets face it, nothing is as easy as downloading music. New mediums like MicroSD will only be limited and maybe eventually as collections. Funny how vinyl is coming back as a collectors item. Vinyl has THE best sound with a good record player/needle and high end speakers. I still buy CDs from time to time, but never brand new (too expensive) only used.

To add on to JP's comment about after-market head units, Blaupunkt currently offers a car stereo that only uses SD cards for music playback. It doesn't have a CD-player at all.

So the future is now...

hmm so I need to replace my studio quality cd player for my home theatre to have this p.o.s.?? rigggght.

You're kidding, right? Something smaller than a fingernail is pretty easy to lose. I like my CDs just fine, thanks. Then when my ripped file either corrupts, device is stolen, etc. I won't be out my music.

The people who will be interested in this are the same ones who want to see video on a 2" screen. . . smaller is not always better.

who would waste their money on a bunch of probably undersized capacity microSD cards that most people will probably lose when everyone is already using iPods and other mp3 players that are 10 times better. This idea is just the next mini-disc player and even the person I knew that bought into that "fad" would definitely not even think of buying one of these. I can't believe this idea is even going to be launched, what a waste.

So far, no one is offering music downloads at the full resolution of CDs.

Even iTunes Plus uses lossy compression, and MP3 as used by Slot Music is even more so.

Until I can download every bit that is on a CD along with the album notes, the CD isn't dead for me.

Why not skip the physical media entirely?

If the music industry said these Slot Music memory cards could reduce the price of a CD down to $5, I'd say they have a deal.

Otherwise I'd rather take the 3 minutes and burn the CD to mp3 at home and still have the CD to drop into my home stereo or car.

Now if they sold HUGE bundles of music on these things at highly discounted rates, perhaps they might have something. If I can get a substantial collection (read:30 CDs) of the Sounds of the Seventies on Slot for $30, I'd buy one.

I hope someone at Sony or SanDisk is paying attention.

So listen up everyone out there thats cheap and burns all these artists music for free.......YOu are killing the musicians fhat break their backs, bank accounts and live on nothing to get their music out to you and what does MOST people do??? Just burn the cd from a friend or buy it on iTunes. Now...most of the time I buy my stuff straight from the band in order to get them the most profit because Bands truly get shafted when it comes to compensation based on album sales. The reason Brittney Spears has all her money is NOT because of album sales....think shrits, bracelets, keychains..etc...If we don't start buying CD's or some sort of physical media, its going to kill the Artist in terms of making money...someday were going to get rid of this bullsh#T that is the "record industry" cause frankly...we just don't need them anymore....you hear that record execs, no one needs you anymore!!!!hahahahahahah.......Its all about the music....nothing else...- JK

I am what is called an audiophile. For those unfamiliar with that term, it basically means one who enjoys music to it's fullest technical potential. I of course have regular CD's but when possible, I buy Super Audio CD's, DVD-Audio, and DTS music discs. These are specially made to produce the full dynamic sound range of a recording. Many are in 5.1 surround sound. Super high fidelity, high resolution/definition sound may be more familiar terms. These do require a special type of DVD/CD player but the sound difference between these CD's and the normal versions are akin to the difference between a regular TV picture and an HD TV picture. Of course I don't need that kind of special sound anywhere but at home on my somewhat fancy sound system which is also used for DVD's.

I welcome advances in technology but dispair in the possible loss of the CD format. So far, no I-pod or MP3 player can re-produce the high resolution sound or even surround sound. After being exposed to Dolby Digital surround sound from a DVD, would you be happy going back to just the TV speakers or even stereo? To me, digital music is harsh and cold.

Anyone remember mini disc? Yeah, it was supposed to replace the compact disc about ten years ago, offering skip-free playback even while exercising as well as more content on less space. It never caught on, and I do not expect this to catch on either...but then maybe I am becoming a relic as well in the fast pace digital age. But I love my CDs...and I hope they never go away...

I didn't read many of the previous comments, but from what I scanned everyone agrees. Why buy micro SD cards, when you can just get the data? Like probably everyone else, even if I bought one of these, I'd just import these to my laptop and MP3-player (with FM-transmitter to play in the car) and play them that way. I would not waste my time messing with a fingernail-size piece of plastic, let alone lots of them.

bad idea... too easy to loose, too easy to mix up with other discs such as for your camera or phone and I do not, nor will I own a MP3 player... I have my cd's in my car and my music on my computers. Why do I need an mp3 player? Stick with what you know.

Great news, perhaps on the side they can eventually give us an encoded version of the 24bit/96khz masters. The DVD music crowd is proof enough that some people want to go beyond the 16bit resolution of modern MP3's and CD's. It's time we allow the record companies to offer a significant improvement and regain some of their lost business, without us investing in any new technology. Face it these cards are everywhere these days and they are more durable than a CD. What more could you ask for?

I've got to chuckle – I remember over twenty years ago being presented the new music format by local Polydor reps to a room of retail music store managers in LA. While they claimed they could be scratched and would still play (ignoring that they were scratching the non-playing side...), and that they gave "perfect" digital sound, I found myself wondering why they just hadn't gone to a chip, not unlike what was being used for the new videogames...I had already been through the death of 78's, 4-track tapes, eight tracks, and clearly vinyl LP's and cassettes were about to be threatened...it's taken twenty five years for the idea's time to come. And I doubt it will be the last, or last, for long.

1963-"Make it or Break it" -"I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles. I said "Break it". So what do I know...?

What I THINK is that if it isn't compatible with iPod, it's dead in the water.

iPod is not just another gadgit, it's a revolution.

But somehow, I like the idea. At least you can get into iTunes with USB, right?

I agree with those who want to keep the quality of CDs. It took many years for the quality of CD sound to evolve to being close to sounding really musical and alive, as good quality vinyl albums once did on even modestly expensive turntables and stereos. Listen to the Beatle's white album on vinyl and then listen to any CD produced in the early eighties to see what we are talking about.

The differnce between compresed, digitally-reconstituted music and Non-compressed formats is also very apparent. An anology all guitar players can instantly understand is comparing the difference between a Fender Deluxe Reverb tube powered guitar amplifier to even the best and most expensive solid-state/transistor powered amplifier. The tubes provide a multitude of overtones, hamonics and warmth to the sound, making it exponentialy more musical than that produced by transistors! Guitar players such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and those in bands such as Metalica or Maroon 5 would not play through a transistor powered amplifier in front of an audience or in the studio, if you gave it to them and payed them to do so. Compressed formats, such as MP3 sound as if they were recorded on cheap, transistor powered equipment. Digital compression litterally clips off parts of the sound that are outside a certain range of frequencies and then squashes what's left, loosing a lot of fidelity in the process, just as transisters only operate in specified range.

I want to hear every nuance of the music, including guitar pick noises, drum sticks clicking inadvertantly on the rims, the resonance of the amplifier's tubes and the harmonics and overtones those produce. I vote that we all tell SANDisk and the playback equipment companies to stop production of these compressed files, no matter their storage format, and invest HEAVILY in creating a non-compessed file format that is sold at about 10-15 dollars per album.

Speaking of Ablums, I also vote we go back to selling mostly ablums (or collections of music put together by the musician to represent their thoughts and emotions in that point of their lives or that point in societies 'life') and very few sinlges. Cherry picking, as one of you calls it, can leave an artist with a number one hit struggling to feed themselves, let alone with the capital to get back in the studio and create another album, so that you can cherry pick one or two songs off it for a buck each or worse yet ,pirate them for free.

It isn't the end of CD's....Those San Disk SM's are going to break or get lost easily!....CD's ROCK!!

There will be no successful physical format for music distribution after the CD. Downloading is far too popular. They are disguising a dinosaur as an innovation. There will remain niche markets for vinyls for awhile, but that's about it. (and don't count on the non-protected status remaining long anyway)

sheesh, I'm going to have to buy the "White" album.....*again*!

Give me a break! Once these are available, people will start buying them over cd's because cd's are bulky and scratch easily. I download music too but sometimes I prefer to buy an album from a store, whatever the physical format is. Oh, btw, my car comes with a SD slot so its all good!

It's small and so will be the sound. CD's already compress the music which sounds like crap compared to uncompressed vinyl. I bet the compession on this thing is large and the original music mutilated.

Several years ago Virgin test-marketed the later-era Rolling Stones albums pre-loaded onto thumb-drives. Did anyone buy them? No, no one is THAT stupid. This is more of the same. Leave it in your pocket and see how long it takes to end up in the clothes washer w/ all your missing socks. WORTHLESS. The record companies couldn't save a gnat's life, let alone their own. They tried to kill off the record album, and now that's the only format with a GROWING marketshare. I was listening to Duffy, Shelby Lynne and Adele today at work, played from vinyl records.

I read that the format will use standard 1GB microSD cards, which have just recently come down to a price point that allows this type of usage. The sad irony is that 1GB is more than enough to hold the full content of any CD in uncompressed WAV format. To add to the chorus, this is truly an unnecessary format.

I love the convenience and versatility of flash cards, especially now that SD and related formats dominate. They are more convenient than any previous portable storage format, including CDs. Folks concerned about these cards being fragile apparently don't use them. They're well built and simply too small to damage or break under normal usage.

The way to avoid losing files is simply to back them up like any other computer file.

Once again I think the largest problem is that we are talking about low bandwidth/Compressed audio. CD's do not have this. Flash memory has the equal capacity of CD's (700 Mb), but why is nobody putting high definition audio on these devices?

My fear is that we will make a move to this type of convenient delivery device for music, but we will loose all the quality we fought so hard for in the first place.

These things are D.o.A. – Textbook Non-Starters.

I just thought of something. The audio file on the device is an MP3 file. This gives the producers/distributors the right to say in court that the files you're being charged with for copyright infringement are their own copyrighted releases. Producer/distributors never released mp3 or ipod compat files. Middlemen did that.

The current argument is that the mp3 format song is so far inferior in quality from that released by the original *producer* that it can't be considered the original release.

Maybe my paranoia is kicking in.

This is a short lived fad- this media should have been introduced a couple years ago if it wanted to get a foothold. Streaming music off the internet and on-line stores will be the most cost effective way for everyone to make money. People are over going to music stores in malls and getting ripped off. These solid state memory cards will be no cheaper to make, package and market than CDs. The only reason Sandisk is pushing this is because it is their core technology – solid state memory. This media format offers no advantage to streaming your music from on-line sources.

I am ready for this, a media I cant ruin by dropping it on the floor, a media that will not skip because its dirty, a media that will allow me to Plug and Play, litterally.

Make a 2 gig card with videos as well as audio. HD? Make a 50 gig card for home use!

People that are worried about losing it, its comforting to know they have never lost anything, I wish I knew where my keys were right now, but I am a human, I lose things.

This is much simpler than format. Nobody cares about an "album" of material anymore. Ask anyone under 25 who their favorite band is anymore and they will stare at you blankly. We are back to the 50's in terms of sales. Singles are all that sells. The realm of fans that relish a body of work is diminishing to a point of nonexistence. That is fact not opinion. The death of sales is as much attributed to the fact that the consumer will no longer pay for 40 minutes of filler to buy one good song. You can try selling crap in any format. Fact remains it is still crap. The artists that actually are credible through and through still have good album sales and in fact make a killing on live performance. That alone is the industry in a nutshell. A lable/album is no longer necessary nor is it relevant. If an artist is truly worthy they will make money. The big difference now is that the fakers can't profit.

you nu****.... sure, CDs can hold up to a lot... but what about a smudge or a scratch or two? Sure makes listening to the music rather annoying.

They should have stuck with vinyl.

okay so I finally joined the current age and got an Ipod, I got the shuffle, because I have no need to read a screen that small. Jason, master of Keyboards are you being facetious or are you actually serious????? Breaking their backs?! Give me a break. These people spend more on one of their many houses than my entire extended family could ever dream to have. So I feel no shame on getting my music for free. I'm an EMT and I work with people who get Medical Assistance. Maybe I shouldn't save their lives because they aren't paying for the healthcare I'm breaking my back to provide them.

My dad owns an original White Album that he paid for when it was released. He also owns the entire white album on his mp3 player. While the obvious sound differences are there; each song is complete and a my dad didn't have to waste any money on that.

I put all my music on these sized cards. My phone is my main MP3 player. I have a 4 GB microSD card (that's all these things are really) that holds more music than I even know what to do with. At the moment they go all the way up to 8 GB.

THAT is why these things will be DOA. For $25 you can go get a 4 GB microSD card for your phone or your MP3 player that will hold about 1,000 songs. Most of these come with card reader adapters so that you can read them in a normal sized SD slot as well.

So the format itself is not the problem. The problem is that they're selling these with one album on them. Nobody is going to be stupid enough to buy those. I personally like to use my phone as an all in one device (MP3 player, GPS, camera, even Mobile TV). I'd rather just have all my music with me at all times on one microSD card than have to change them out all the time.

This may actually stick around longer than any other short fad. With today's technology, anything is possible.

Being a professional musician/composer, I must say, I like the idea of the files being copy protected. It is a must !! But the idea of the quality going down even more so is a real disappointment! If they could achieve this with vinyl record quality they would have it all.

Great thing for you gadget gus who like to buy silicon, but there are other was to play music. A very annoying thing with Digital media is losing it especially when it has the capacity to hold so much info.

From a n audiofile perspective of which I am not but am an electonic technician. There are older mediums like tube that provide a much more vibrante listening than digital especially at the high end.

There are places for analog and digital, it depends what you want.

What an inconvenient form of media. Who wants to collect a bunch of little cards that can easily get lost or destroyed? Why would anyone waste their time on a small card when you can easily purchase the songs that you want on Itunes and Rhapsody? Ipods and Iphones don't even have card slots. This new card would make zero dollars from the 200 million + ipod users.

Selling an mp3/mp4 with itunes costs almost nothing compared to manufacturing SD cards with packaging, artwork, and shipping. Not a very smart business move.

the only potential market i see is for audiophiles, will they offer 24bit/96khz flacs alongside mp3s?

if you're going to sell a computer accessory, your market is going to be to geeks and if you can offer something more the nitche (audiophiles). its nice to have DVD-A and SACD quality, but can you port that around? transferring DVD-A and SACD to your hard drive is not pleasant. this little card better offer everything that anyone might want, especially the niche, or its guaranteed to be D.o.A.

their first mistake was not making the hardware format USB, everyone knows how to operate USB. their second mistake was not talking apple into putting a sd slot onto the ipod so you could slide the card in and copy music. but the biggest mistake was squabbling over formats early in the war, trying to force DRM and completely fracturing the market from the beginning. Apple took over with clever ads, period. the ipod compared unfavorably in price and quality to every other digital audio player on the market in the beginning, but they made things "seem" simple so you would buy it (even simpler would be to allow drag and drop and not forcing their propriety lossless format).

GREAT IDEA!! Music companies stopped caring about music a long time ago. They are making music that is itself diposable and utterly forgettable, so why not put it in a cheap disposable format that's easy to lose? Any serious music fan already knows that most of the best music being released right now is limited to vinyl only, and never sees the light of day in any sort of digital format. Don't have a turntable? Too bad. You're really missing out; not only on the best music, but still the best sound quality of all.

Ugh, another junky-sounding music device. How about coming up with something for us audiophiles who know what good music should sound like?! The industry was really making inroads to quality music again with its DVD-audio but I can barely find any titles in it anymore. Heaven is sitting in the middle of the livingroom floor surrounded by Paradigm speakers on a lossless, high-quality surround system with a sweet DVD-audio or an unblemished vinyl in play! I want quality, full-range, uncompressed music on something like Blu-Ray! While they are far better than pod players and downloads, CDs are lossy and too easily damaged, too. I still groan at my old CDs where I can tell immediately what tracks I listened to the most because they are muffled and dimmed. How about instead of focusing on junk like this device, we get some decent, affordable, high-quality media back in and let people burn off their own MP3s and flash drives instead...

There is a Micro SD player for cars. It's a Cassette adapter that is an mp3 player. They are cool

I think this has the potential to be successful.

The article reads, "All songs will be free of copy protection as well." So people concerned with losing the tiny device can offload the files to an MP3 player or their PC. Yet benefit from this portable storage medium.

Moreover, many consumer do enjoy packaged goods. Plus the fact that if you offload the songs, you'll have a portable device to store other files such as spreadsheets and images.

CD's may be a thing of the past is in some people's opinion, but at least when I pick one up and look at it I know who the artist is and what songs are on it. With the sd card it is almost impossible to label it in such a way that I can easily see the content.

You know, I hope this doesn't replace CDs. I am one of the (what seems like) few people in the world who has no MP3 player or IPOD and have no desire to get one. I have a basic cell phone with no camera, no music, no video, and I'm perfectly happy with it. My car has a CD player, and I'm not planning to get rid of that, either. And it's not an HD radio, too!

Of course, I'm also on dial-up, so maybe we're just not on the same page, here.

I called this about 30 years ago. Can you imagine your entire collection of music stored in a small shoe box? Cool! I'd jump on board!

This won't work. This idea was attempted a few years ago and failed. The cards are too small, there is no way to tell what is on each card, and do people really want to own hundreds of little sd cards?

I have over 800 CDs, but I would never buy 800 of these little cards.

same reason why Madonna is touring like hell. Artists dont make much profit from CD sales. Hail to the Queen!

It's too late for a new format...the majority of the world already enjoys instant gratification (legal and illegal) through digital download. It's sad that the fastest-growing and most successful market within the music industry is ringtones...tells you a lot about the depth of the next generation.

Anyway, this won't even get off the ground. At the point, there's no turning back. The *only* pricing model that will work to get people to pay for music is a subscription service where you pay a flat fee for access to a vast and growing library. There are already services like this and they are a very good value. Artists can be proportionately compensated by how much their own content is accessed.

Like many on this post, I own a large library of music (mostly CDs) and will like continue to collect them for years to come; however, I also read the writing on the wall and know that physical formats for music is dying quickly. Watch out, because video won't be far behind and (thanks to devices like Kindle), books will eventually follow suit.

Or I can download my music DRM free from Amazon, not pay taxes, and put them on my own SD card, MP3 player or whatever.

it's nifty little advance in technology.
unfortunately it doesn't solve any problems or fill any niches.
what's the point?

Is my .05 ounce mp3 player really weighing me down?
Is my online download of the song really more burdensome than going to the store to buy this micro version?

If we're going to continue to advance technology, why don't we focus on music QUALITY for a change. We already have convenience. What we don't have are mp3s that sound anything like the original performance.

Erick, an iPod is an mp3 player but it also plays the heavily DRM'd, proprietary iTunes format that you can't play on any other device.

Yes! Now I can trade in my binders of CDs for a big bowl of expensive chips without tracklists or labels!! Where's that one track I wanted to listen to? Probably at the bottom.

No thanks. I'll stick with CDs and, more importantly, MP3/digital distribution. That's the true future of media.

MP3 is a poor format for sound quality. They need to use other lossless formats that sound fantastic like a FLAC file

I know one thing's for sure: I definitely won't be switching to this USB thing; I'll be sticking to CDs.

Going to USB "music carriers" will make it so much harder for music artists to get the art part of their music across, since they will no longer have the media to make their CDs different and stretch creative ideas in making their albums. If this were in place right now, for example, Beck wouldn't be able to make "The Information," which gave the album purchaser an opportunity to "do it themselves" and create their own album cover using the stickers provided with the CD. It's already becoming increasingly hard for music artists to find an art component for their music with Internet downloading and very heavy reliance on computers as sole sources of artistic media.

This is one of the main reasons why I prefer to purchase CDs over downloads of music and, even if this SanDisk "album" thing starts, why I will continue to do so. In the meantime, I hope this development takes an absurdly long time to emerge and that it's just a fad when it does.

If this format has the same detestable sound quality as MP3 and Ipod, NO THANKS!

The effort of the deluded self-designated "esperts" to convince the informed music lovers that digital is "perfect" has led us down the path of accepting less than mediocrity as a replacement for anything that resembles music.

An Ipod or MP3 player is totally incapable of producing anything but 8 bit resolution NOISE.

Thanks, but no thanks...

What about the formatting that occurs every time I put a new Micro SD card in my phone? Won't this be an issue?

Silly fad, dead on arrival.

Too bad quality has left the equation for the industry. Technology is killing music making. We have the greatest toys designed to make music...has it given us any better quality or songs? No.

Dark Side of the Moon is a testament to that!

Most new phones have a slot for these little memory cards. I think this is a create idea. the only down side I can see is because of their size they can easily get lost/misplaced.

It will die just like Sony Mini Disc did..........

"While they claimed they could be scratched and would still play (ignoring that they were scratching the non-playing side…), and that they gave “perfect� digital sound� "

I guess ignorance IS bliss...

The non-playing side of the CD IS the vulnerable side. Scratches to the label side damage the pits because there is only a thin layer (about 50 microns or 2 thousandths of an inch) of acryilic seal coat between the label and the data pits and their aluminum metallization. Thus, damage to the label side is the most critical test of the bullet proof nature of CD's.

The actual read side surface is 1.2 mm away from the pits, and scratches there are completely out of focus as far as the read laser is concerned, since the read laser focusses through the 1.2 mm polycarbonate onto the aluminum reflective surface on the label side.

In addition, the data information is interleaved across a large area of the disk, making the effect of small divots less of an issue (Graceful Degradation of data as opposed to catastrophic degradation).

You can drill a half mm diameter hole through a CD in the information area and the disk will still play right through, though evidence of error correction will become noticeable.

DVD audio has similar data integrity protections but the higher information density there makes the impact of small divots more of an issue because four times as much data is impacted by the same sized divot. Nonethless, DVD audio, IN ITS TWO CHANNEL manifestation, 24 bits, 96 kHz sampling rate, is the only medium that has the capability of reaching the musical impact of vinyl LP's.

However, who cares about sound quality when the bulk of new music only has information between 10 and 200 Hz, has built in 50% harmonic distortion and has only one level, VERY LOUD.

I knew this was the next evolution in the music industry. With almost all media now being digital this is the smartest move. Not only will you be able to get rid of these huge binders of CD's but it should also decrease the price in memory cards because of the mass production. With everything you own now be it cameras, phones, mp3 players, and anything else you can think of taking some sort memory card it will decrease the price for these products as well.

Also imagine the possibilities now instead of paying 15 dollars for one album you could potentially pay only 50 for an entire discography and if you like bands that have been around a while like Aerosmith then that is an incredible value.

Now all they need to do is do the same exact thing with movies.

Over 20 years ago I projected this technology. I'm glad to see that it has arrived.

For those who complain that these chips won't work in their cars, think a bit. Your car radio unit is comparatively huge and weighs several pounds. A good piece of that size and weight is due to the cassette or CD/MP3 player needing to be both physically large enough for the media and mechanically tough enough to withstand years of use in extremes of temperature and humidity. By removing the need for physical mechanisms, you enable the radio to be lighter and more energy-efficient; a quality needed as we move into the age of hybrid and all-electric cars.

Also, think about the number of chips you can store in the same space now taken by those cassettes and disks. By size alone, you could store nine chips in the space of one CD jewel case. You could probably store 12 to 18 in the space of one cassette jewel case. In other words, you could carry an entire library of music in your car's console or glove box where you would normally carry only 10 to 12 disks or tapes.

Ok, maybe they could be easy to misplace. Why not make the cards brightly-colored instead of basic black? It's not like we don't have the ability to color these things.

Consider: the flat record platter, made of a ceramic material, lasted over 40 years before being replaced by Vinyl. Vinyl lasted about 40 years before being replaced by CDs. CDs are now almost 30 years old.

Technology advances. Shouldn't we?

Dumb idea. If ya wana buy music CDs are fine. All your gona do with tiny discs is loose them. Besides, I havn't touched my CD collection in years...it's all loaded in my 160gig iPod..and when I get a new album these days, I download it.

After reading a number of comments here, I have to say there's an extreme lack of logic going on. True, the RIAA in its efforts to maintain some kind of physical format has managed to price themselves out of the running for too long. True, the CD format and the subsequent MP3 format are extremely lossy and carry relatively poor audio quality. However, both do have one advantage at the moment; the physical medium, when reasonably cared for (meaning the disk kept in a damage- and light-resistant case) can last a very long time at least a person's lifetime even with regular and frequent playback, something vinyl is not really capable of.

Now we have the beginnings of a new technology that could see similar reliability with quality approaching that of vinyl; but only if the RIAA permits it to be used to its best effects. One writer posted that even to approach the quality of audio from Vinyl the music should be sampled at a 360Khz rate. I agree. In fact, with the capacities of the new SD and other Flash cards growing to such high numbers, sampling at rates as high as 500Khz or even 1Ghz should not only be possible, but standardized; bringing back some of the true sounds of our music.

CDs and DVDs are limited by the amount of data they can store. Computers and media players were limited by the speed they could access and process this data, again limiting the quality of sound they could produce. Now we have the capability to store huge amounts of data in a very tiny format almost completely losslessly. Our equipment has the ability to process and play back this data at these same high rates. All we have to do is bring these technologies together to bring studio-quality music into our homes and cars.

Geez you people are showing your ignorance. Just because it's on a mini SD card does not mean it has to be in an MP3 format....the loss of quality you are speaking of is due to the protocol used, not the physical storage device. WAV is what is typically used on CDs and could just as easily be put on a mini SD.

These are supposed to come with a USB adapter so they will easily transition to the new cars. The point of this is that this device will transfer among a range of devices easily....from cell phones that use Mini SD, to cameras that will use the extra disk space for storage, to your laptop and mp3 player (if they have them in mp3).

As for the supposed durability of CDs, they do scratch and there is proven evidence that the quality does degrade over time as air penetrates the film between the plastic disks.

mini SDs would offer the ultimate in portability as well. You could carry 6 or 8 albums in a card the size of your wallet. Or imagine taking that 6 CD changer out of the trunk of your car and putting it in something the size of a tape deck in the dash?

Having said that, i believe that putting albums on disks in general, whether on cd or mini SD is a mistake. A better option would be to allow users to select the songs they want at the store and purchase only the individual songs.

I really dont see this chip thing as something thats going to last. of course its a clever invention and might be able to replace the CD, depending. but it certanly will not last since we can always download and play our music to our computers, phones, ipods, mp3, etc. which are more convenient and preferable.

In the end, don't we buy CD's for the album cover?

The average person will simply download a song before bothering to go to a store for a flashcard. This concept is DOA.

To be honest I don't think these SD cards will become too popular.

Cars may get a slot where you can insert an SD card, but at this point a lot of people have already replaced CDs with their iPods. When CDs fall, I think it will be to digital downloads, not to a new physical format. And that's a shame–part of the appeal of buying music is getting the physical album art and liner notes. Whenever I bought a new CD as a teen, the first thing I did was pull out the liner booklet and smell it (every CD smells different, it's actually kind of fascinating).

This is a sad day... What happened to going to a music store, browsing the collection, picking out the best CD/Album you could find, taking it home, listening, and browsing the liner notes?

It's just sad to see music turned into this commercial waste instead of transforming into art. But, alas, it's not the music industries fault, we the consumers have driven to the brink.

Instruments have been replaced and nobody has to sing on key anymore without the help of machines; it's really just a mess. I say good riddance! I don't want to listen to anything new coming out anyways, and the bands that I do want to listen to are still producing LPs and CD's.

I'll just have to go to the flea market and independents to get my music.

More music for me!

You've got to be kidding. In an era where you can carry around your ENTIRE MUSIC COLLECTION – gigs and gigs of complete albums, random singles, audiobooks, podcasts, etc – in a device smaller than most cell phones (and, with some players, smaller than two stacked dollar coins), and plug/synch/tune that device to play in your car, on a portable stereo, through a computer, etc – the "wave of the future" is a tiny, easy-to-lose black chip the size of a thumbnail?

I'll agree the card's size is nice, and far less prone to damage than scratchable CDs – but putting them in car sterios? How many people are going to want to try changing albums on their morning commute with something that tiny and easy-to-lose? Who *really* wants to go back to carrying multiple pieces or media around?

It's a nice idea for people who want physical backup copies of their music collection that they don't have to create themselves, but the vast majority of these Slot SDs are going to be bought, downloaded onto a computer, and uploaded onto an iPod/Smartphone.

God these morons just don't get it..................................

[...] to Napster to the resurgence of vinyl, CDs have had an expiry date on them for some time. Now, CNN Science is saying the new Slot Music device from San Disk is the bees-knees. I'm waiting to get the [...]

Flash in the cash flow plan for short while.
Glitter of fools gold, but real copy protection, till broken

8 Gig µSD and 16 Gig SD is the price point for density.
Gimme lot of video and song, that I can later erase, Pirate I become.

SD cards can potentially hold many GBs of data. Therefore, it is possible to have not one but many album's worth of music on one tiny SD card with no loss in quality whatsoever (nothing is compressed). The question is, in an age where mp3s and other electronic files are the preferred means of musical commerce, will people shell out for the new medium? I doubt it. Not unless the business manufacture the means by which to hear the music–car players, home decks, portable devices, etc. Not even a casual music listener really wants to listen to their favorite record on a cell phone. I sold my iPod and bought a digital audio recorder specifically because I'd have to pay out big bucks for a car adapter and a home deck. Neither of which I need, because I have a CD player and my car manufacturer put a CD player in the vehicle. And what does my new Zoom H2 digital audio recorder use to store gigabites worth of lossless musical information? You got it, SD cards.

These will be a fad. The music industry needs to embrace downloads, no physical media to get those sales, and continue increasing vinyl production. Steve mentioned the loss of new music on vinyl, not true, almost everything is coming out on vinyl, people interested in buying a physical media are moving back to that, those not interested just want downloads, not a Slot Music format for the same price.

The music industry is still stuck on putting music on physical distribution technologies. The writing has been on the wall for years that the public would prefer to download their music since the late 90's.

Hey SanDisk, the Nineties called; they want their idea back!!! Hello?!? The minidisk already came out and failed! Now that we have a fluid format with easy transferring capabilities and only ONE thing to carry, you want to move backwards and cause us to have to carry a bunch of junk again? Why would we go from having THOUSANDS of tracks on ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT to carrying thousands of little micro disks- which by the way, will have to be changed-out each time we want to change artists?!?!?!? Think much? Maybe, and I mean MAYBE, this idea would make more sense with DVD’s, but almost as unnecessary as with CD’s.

Well, I guess somebody forgot to tell you: Music CDs are already dead, and have been for a while now. I've not purchased an actual CD since 2006, and I consider myself to be an old-school hold-out.

The advent of MP3s spelled the doom of music CDs, and the albums and singles I've purchased or acquired since 2006 have all been strictly electronic. My CD collection is now just collecting dust and consuming space, existing now only as a "backup" to part of my digital collection.

The SD-card distribution scheme is a gimmick - an interesting gimmick, but a gimmick nevertheless.

I love this idea, now my car won't be littered with CD's, instead, a bunch of finger-nail size chips haha! I just hope the magnetic strips on the end don't get scratched too easily – I haven't taken my SD card on my phone off too much to experiment...

I think that downloading (sometimes questionably) will remain on top, but as far as those go, provided they do last a while... I really hope that they put a hole in it or something so you can stick it on a keychain Dx

i admit i'm one of the few people who don't own an mp3 player and still lugs their cd travel case with them, but this sounds like anti-wheel technology. it makes no sense to create a form of tangible media like this when downloading an mp3 is so much more convenient (and harder to loose then one of these will probably be). i'll be sad the day they stop making cd's, but at least the next step will make sense.

This will so never fly. I think this is just a way of trying to get kids to have to re-purchase all the music they loose, break, overwrite...

I still collect vinyl. This idea is destined to not only flop, but never even get off the ground. Did they do ANY market research? What a joke.

The problem with MP3's is the reduced frequency response from the compressed files. CD's sound better, particularly in a better system such as your home or car.

Johann Tetreault, what CDs are you paying around $30 for?! I work at a music/merchandise store and unless the CD is a box set they rarely go above $18. Even double-discs.

And vinyl is coming back like crazy, article writer.

I have been hoping that this would come around. Reason being, a 1gb SD card could hold an entire CD's worth of music AT THE ORIGINAL BITRATE, without having to use so much plastic. I don't download much music from itunes because it doesn't sound very good at 128kbps. Acoustic guitars lose their shimmer, basses' low end rolls off, and vocalists lose the ambience of the room. I guess it doesn't matter as much with overproduced pop (where everything is compressed anyway.) If it uses lossless compression, I'm all for this new format.

Edit–checked out the website: http://www.slotmusic.org. It's only 320kbps. Good, but still compressed. Sorry SanDisk, I'll keep ripping CDs to my hard drive and tossing them in the big plastic tote in my closet.

I hope the sound will be better than any of the present computer based music. Most may not notice but once you get an ear for the degraded sound of a compressed file, you can never go back. Being able to carry all your music on one small device is not a technological advancement when it sounds terrible.

More compressed ,lousy sound quality crap to further destroy the music industry! They have become what the american auto industry has become. Self defeating nearshighted fools.

This is not going to do anything.

With ipods and mp3 players able to store what like 5000 songs to 10,000s.

The slot card is going to flop. It's not convientent enough. Like the ipod and other media players you can walk around with your full library of music, with artwork, videos, movies and so on anywhere you want. hook up to your computer, car, stereo or PA system.
Despite the mp3 files themselves sound like crap. The logical change is mp3's will upgrade to a new file format that has a much better quality is the way it's going. Portable Media players are getting better every year there will be some stumbling along the way but it will get there.

I think the slot card is destined to fail I think it was a nice try.

Darn, my dog just ate half of my 2000 SD cards! Glad I don't have a pet goat>

Guess what most of my customers are buying for music storage and music playback? Thirty year old reel to reel decks and tapes. The best sound was already out there but like vinyl and other formats, tape has been discarded for newer technology. The music industry along with the equipment manufacturers are continuously inventing 'new' technology and throwing away the better stuff. It's interesting to see that vinyl sales are again growing a bit each year while digital (CD's) are falling. Once someone has taken the earbuds off and listened to a real stereo (built in the 1960's – 70's), they realize how they are getting ripped off quality wise.

The only difference between our society and the society of 100 years ago is that we have cell phones ,

Hey, I just had a great idea! Since large record companies and retailers keep pushing for newer, smaller formats, they should continue on this course until they are so small as to not exsist at all. I for one would be glad to see the end of insipid music made for the masses clogging up perfecly good airspace and wasting perfectly good plastic, or whatever it is that CDs, iPods or other sorts of modern format they are inhabiting are made out of.

If you insist on listening to mindless music, they should just find a way to implant it directly into the your brain so those of us who appreciate real art don't have to suffer second-hand exposure. I'm sure they'll find several thousand unused gigabytes available.

Here's a good rule of thumb: if you can buy it at Walmart, or any other major retailer or music chain store, then it isn't worth buying. There is a format that's been available for decades that offers not only superior sound quality, but will never go out of style–vinyl.

I got tired of reading comments but caught this one.

"These do require a special type of DVD/CD player but the sound difference between these CD’s and the normal versions are akin to the difference between a regular TV picture and an HD TV picture."

So its not that big a difference for people that can't afford over priced and large equipment.

And about these cards its a ridiculous idea indeed. CDs are awesome because you have physical cover art and booklets. These would be pointless. Anyway CDs are better than digital copy downloads most of the time. If anywhere gives 360kb mp3 downloads thats just as good in my oppinion. After all I listen to music and go to concerts my ears can't pickup the difference between a cd and a 360kb mp3 anymore. Too damaged from loud noises. And most people that claim they can hear the difference probably can't. Really they just imagine it because they know ones supposed to be better. After all hearing degrades with time and is easily damaged by what volume alot of people listen to music at.

Really dumb idea. It's a major step backwards from what devices like the ipod already provide.

"Funny how vinyl is coming back as a collectors item. Vinyl has THE best sound with a good record player/needle and high end speakers. I still buy CDs from time to time, but never brand new (too expensive) only used."

I share these sentiments exactly. I started buying vinyl when possible about a year ago, mainly because of the huge artwork, the sound, collectible discs, posters and other inserts, being able to watch and physically HEAR your music, etc.

New CDs are generally a bit over priced, but if there is a good indie record store nearby then used music is absolutely the way to go. I recently purchased a double album at Amoeba Music for $11. Not only did I get something physical to hold onto, but I got it for less than what iTunes is selling it for.

Short lived, short sighted... We all know the medium for music delivery is via online accessible content. When will these dinosaurs finally realize that we are beyond purchasing a tangible item for music? Yeah, we used to be attached to the record/cd sleeve but we finally graduated. Kudos to SanDisk though for selling a solar powered flashlight to these dinosaurs.

[...] In Technology | Tags: Technology, music, downloads, stores, ipod, mp3, mp3 players So I came across this article and thought it was a pretty cool idea. But I figured that if you're going to buy music at [...]

What is with everyone hyping up vinyl? It was done away with because it is an archaic and antiquated medium. Vinyl LP's are huge in physical size, taking up valuable space. They sound scratchy and hissy. The sound quality degrades with each playing, since there is a needle in contact with the surface, each reveloution scraping a small layer at a time away. Good riddance 45's, 33 1/3's, and 78's.

*sigh* Everything sucks about music now...

thanks alot MTV

I don't know why everyone seems to think that mp3's will be placed on these microSD cards. MicroSD cards can be produced with up to 4gb capacity (even more for Micro SDHC). CDs hold 700mb. If anything, these MicroSD cards will INCREASE the quality of the music.

Everyone wants to say something, and no one is reading what is said.

I read here people complaining about the sound quality of the new chips as being as bad as- or worse than- mp3s. Yet one person clearly stated that the bit rate (sampling rate) was double that as seen on CDs at over 320kbps. These are NOT mp3 bit rates. This is a definite improvement even over CDs in quality in a format even more compact and portable than disks.

I will complain that even 320Khz is much too limited; the chip capacities currently available should allow for over 500khz for even truer sound, though I don't think you'll get back to Vinyl quality until you sample at 1Mhz or higher.

"We have the technology. We can make it better."

short fad. online shopping is the future

I buy CDs (rarely anymore though) and rip my own. If they are going to put CD quality, or better on these things then I'll consider them. (24 bit FLAC would be awesome!). But if they're only going to be MP3 (or heaven forbid, WMA!), I won't go near them. I really wish someone would offer DMA free FLAC downloads though (hello? Amazon?)

[...] einde van de muziekcd in zicht? Bron: CNN Scitech Blog (klik [...]

that is so banging it will be better than all the other audio appliances that they are using now

There are still some bands that refuse to go with ITunes. AC/DC? Some like Garth Brooks, or Kid Rock, don't even do downloading unless you rip them off. I think this might be an excellent oportunity for fans of these old fashioned artists.

[...] Read it in full at CNN's SciTechBlog... [...]

Will it last, who knows and who cares. The real statement of fact comes that the labels have given up on the CD completely. This is is not news but it's interesting that the nails, one by one are going into the coffin. If you go back to the early 80's before CD took over there was a guy who had invented ram based music storage for consumer use. at the same time sony & philips had been working on this CD thing. they had plants geared up and ready to force their hand. This guy gets paid to shut up and is no the proud owner of a wonderful island southwest of San Juan somewhere. Of course there was infrastructure in place that wasn't available then, web speed etc. But now it's interesting to see that we're right back where we were – in the broadest of strokes – 30 years ago now that everything ounce of revenue has been squeezed from the little round disc.

@Nick: [quote]There are still some bands that refuse to go with ITunes. AC/DC? Some like Garth Brooks, or Kid Rock, don’t even do downloading unless you rip them off. I think this might be an excellent oportunity for fans of these old fashioned artists.[/quote]

I might agree with you in some cases. AC/DC itself isn't on the iTMS, but a number of Tribute albums to them are. The same is true for Garth Brooks. However, there is at least one album by Kid Rock on the iTMS as well as a music video and other cuts.

However, the article is not about the iTMS but rather about a new technology in music distribution; a chip-sized device that could allow you to keep your entire music library in a shoe box. The complaint by some is that the quality will be worse than CD while others declare the quality will be significantly better. A simple analysis of the bit rate possible shows that the quality of the music can be twice that of the standard CD at 320Khz, though they don't yet specify what bit rate they intend to use.

The technology is an interesting one in many ways; it all depends on how it ends up being used.

wow a shoplifters dream steal hundreds of albums in one pocket. This is a horrible idea, to little to late.SD players for our cars? all i needed for mine was a 12 inch cabal to hook up to my Ipod. Without a doubt this will fail people will buy for the shire curiosity but no more

Does NO ONE think that MP3 sound sucks. What of the compressed low dynamic range high harmonics? IF the new SanDisks are MP3 then I am doomed.

There were huge complaints when CD's first arrived that the "warmth" of vinyl was lost. Well I happily gave that up for better dynamic range (the greater ability to get softer to louder passages) and no more ticks and dust blips.

I have not been as impressed with MP3. In fact, I hate MP3 format and can actually hear a difference.

I won't buy it. I don't think most people would buy it. Obviously most of the posters here won't buy it. Is anyone in the music industry catching the hint???

People download music because it's convenient and in most cases free. Why would you buy something if you could get it for free? Yes, you could say it's wrong and immoral but do you think the music industry would let a moral standard keep them from making a profit? We know the answer to that question. The industry is getting a taste of it's own greedy medicine and it doesn't like it. I say too bad.

The old music industry is in it's final dead throws. It refuses to go down. The law suits were just the beginning of a temper tantrum from a business that thinks it has the right to maintain a market. They refuse to realize that the consumers control the market. The consumers have spoken. We simply don't want to pay anymore and we don't need to.

Many music artists are jumping ship and inventing new ways to make a profit from their music that is compatible with the desires of their fans. They're also beginning to understand that getting their music spread as far as possible leads to a bigger audience. Fans want something extra like artwork, autographs, and exclusive goodies that increase the value of purchasing music from their favorite artist. That's how you sell stuff now. Also, musicians can now easily sell to consumers directly which cuts the music industry out as the middle man. Do you really think the artists are going to protect the middle men much longer? I don't think so.

The music companies don't want to give consumers what they desire. Instead they want consumers to accept what they're offered. Anyone with a basic understanding of marketing could see that recipe wasn't going to work.

This whole situation is a real example of how consumers CAN control the market. It's good.

Dear Music Industry Troglodytes,

Just make music available online in FLAC format, and I will buy it. (In fact, I DID buy Radiohead's "In Rainbows" in FLAC instead of on CD.)

Why should I be forced to suffer through Best Buy or (God forbid) Walmart when I have a broadband connection.

Come on guys, get with the program.

Cheers

P.S. D is correct. You have become the irrelevant middle man and your days are numbered.

I have had a patent pending on this "music card" for 3 years now. This is a great idea. I think this company saw my idea thru InventHelp and ran with it. Oh well.

I'd rather have this than an I-pod. If you drop your I-pod and it breaks or your computer crashes, you have lost all your music. What about people who do not have access to the internet for downloading? They can just buy the pre-recorded music cards.

So get a car radio with a SD slot or USB port. Then get a micro SD adapter for the music card.

I don't subscribe to the "downloads are the only way to go" mindset. I know technology well enough to know that losing an entire music collection in one fell swoop due to a corrupted hard drive is not only possible, it's more than likely at some point. Unless you're diligent about back-ups (and most folks are not), downloaded music is always vulnerable to such losses. A dropped, lost, or stolen I-pod means a lost collection too. Sure, the simultaneous loss of both would be unlikely to happen, but I will always be more comfortable buying music on some form of physical media that I can store and access as needed. I enjoy digital music as much as the next person, but I like having an actual physical disc or something to show for the purchase. I enjoy actual liner notes as well. I just hope that slot music, if it somehow manages to take hold, is recorded at or better than CD quality. If they expect to sell this product at MP3 quality, I won't bother. It's a shame that MP3's have taken such a foothold, because in terms of audio quality, they're far inferior to CD quality.

[...] of the fact that music today, for the most part, just isn't very good, the four major music labels and SanDisk are teaming up to release albums on a special version of SanDisk's CompactFlash memory cards, commonly used [...]

generational loss in digital music, is an extreme and well-known problem in the music industry. (recording engineers)

Even when subsequent generations are bit for bit accurate, 97 out of 100 engineers can hear a loss By the third generation.

Hit music contains an emotional content that disappears a bit more in each generation. This is why online copying should not be discriminated against. As each generation or copy will sound worse and worse. When people hear the original or a copy with less gen loss they will realize the difference.

Quality is important and whether these devices can provide it or not is also important.

These folks are spending money only time will tell if that was well spent.

Pioneer already have an SD reader in the head unit. Ive got one and it rocks.

SD cards, USBs, MMC's .. they are all just forms of flash drives. Which is all an iPod essentially is. So its a marketing gimmic, not a new technology.

I think its a great idea, but not every device has microSD capability. I think they missed the boat by only using that type of device. Didn't someone make a USB memory stick that was also Bluetooth?? I think a microDS w/bluetooth would be even better.

[...] Labels to Sell Music on Memory Cards – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News SciTechBlog: Blog Archive – The end of music CDs? « – Blogs from CNN.com __________________ Every forum should have a Phases. I come here in peace... From sister site [...]

Personally, I look foreward to seeing media formats that are more robust than CDs/DVDs. I have four boys and hate how easily CD/DVDs are scratched. Computer games, video games, etc. Hopefully they can implement this for video games, cause I'm sick of spending $40+ bucks to have it ruined so easily. Planned obsolescense sucks! I for one will support better formats.

In reference to the Large Hadron Collider. One connection can live in infamy or in the human condition not at all. That is the risk we are taking with these so called scientist who say they can contain a small black hole. It doesn’t make me to safe, with all the hype of this project and its possibilities and with that the hazards. Yes, its one connection, but what about one that fails when its not suppose to. I’m not a scientist, so I have to trust these knuckleheads but it concerns me when they can’t even solder a connection correctly, and we are suppose to trust them not to destroy the world on a oops.

[...] Posted by Stew4HD That follows what the music world is testing out: From SciTechBlog [...]

I said this years ago that sd cards would replace the cd format but not only that it will be a few years down the line that blockbusters will rent out sd movies

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guitar amplifiers that are made up of vacuum tubes are expensive but they are cool '

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