The big players in music, retail and flash memory technology, including EMI Music, SONY BMG, Universal Music Group (News - Alert), and Warner Music Group, are offering an advanced physical music format, called “slotMusic” to the consumers.

 

These companies will soon introduce “microSD” cards, pre-loaded with high-quality, DRM-free MP3 music of their top artists in the new format. The technology development behind slotMusic is being pioneered by SanDisk (News - Alert) Corporation, inventor of the ubiquitous microSD format.

 

Initially, a selection of these cards will be available at brick-and-mortar and online stores throughout the U.S. and afterwards in Europe. Before the coming holiday season, a complete list of slotMusic albums, availability and pricing will be announced, the companies said.

 

Consumers can deploy slotMusic cards to instantly and easily enjoy music from their favorite artists without being dependent on a PC or Internet connection. They just need to insert the slotMusic card into their microSD-enabled mobile phone or MP3 player to hear the music, with no passwords or downloading required.

 

Packaged with a tiny USB sleeve, slotMusic cards ensure seamless interoperability with all computers, including Windows, Linux and Mac systems, and play back the MP3-based music tracks at up to 320 kilobytes per second (kbps), offering a high-quality music experience for the MP3 format.

 

Hundreds of millions of multimedia-phones, virtually any computer with a USB connector and a growing number of in-car sound systems will be able to play slotMusic cards, hence the format enjoys an unparalleled, pre-existing installed base at launch itself.

 

Also, the slotMusic cards will offer a compelling new way to the musicians for expressing themselves to their fans, as these cards can hold songs, as well as liner notes, album art, videos, and other creative content, with a memory capacity of 1GB (gigabyte).

 

Consumers can also get a personal plug-and-play media library by adding their own content to a slotMusic card. To know more about the slotMusic cards, please visit http://www.slotmusic.org.

 

Danielle Levitas, vice president of Consumer, Broadband & New Media at IDC (News - Alert), said that slotMusic offers consumers an immediate, tangible, and high-quality alternative to CDs and digital delivery. Levitas also noted that this year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by nearly an order of magnitude, a trend which is accelerating.