new physical medium

[egan.]

http://www.slotmusic.org/


http://www.hothardware.com/News/SanDisk-Announces-a-New-Physical-Music-Format/

This is an idea my band kicked around for our last tour since our album was completed but not released (we were actually considering thumb drives).
I don't fully understand why they are distributing mp3's instead of a higher res format on a stand alone product. Still, I think that if the packaging is good this could work.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Agree w all of the above, can't wait for something like this to hit my car cd player

*edit: check that, not mp3 quality

 

[Radd]

This doesn't appeal to me at all. I'd be to worried about losing them being finger nail size and all. I'd rather have a cd or even digital download that I can burn to cd than this.

 

[egan.]

This doesn't appeal to me at all. I'd be to worried about losing them being finger nail size and all. I'd rather have a cd or even digital download that I can burn to cd than this.

Well since they are DRM free you can move the files around however you want.
I think that the idea behind this is to pray on the fundamental weakness of the current itunes/iphone model where you are dependent on wifi to get new songs. Also, the 1gig capacity offers some flexibility of encode quality as well as multimedia extras. Plus the proposed price tag of $7-10 albums is very competitive.
Again, I'm not totally sold but I think that this shows some creativilty.

 

[Trevoire520]

oh no, anything that is going to encourage people to play more music on thier phones should be illegal!

and tbh, i would really prefer if it wasnt going to be done as mp3,

the industry just seems to be pushing the lowest quality music format these days, and who wants a bet in a few years when HUGE capacity music players come out and internet connections are so fast that you can download 16 bit 44.1khz wav albums in seconds they'll start bashing on about this new high quality format and how great it is, despite the fact its already been around for decades

and this ideas going to be a fair way to abolishing cover art, though i suppose we'd still get it in digital form for our i-pods,

and, as already said, we all know we're gonna lose these things,

<end of rant>

 

[Kazrog]

 

[jhrv]

MP3? No thanks.

 

[egan.]

I pretty much understand everyone's skepticism but given that iTunes is the largest music retailer in the US I think it's safe to say that the average consumer is fine with compressed formats and digital cover art. Plus there is nothing that says you won't get some printed art work with this format.
I don't think the industry has pushed for compressed media at all. On the contrary they were caught so flat footed by compressed formats that it took them year to even attempt to sell them.

Personally, I'm always going to buy the highest resolution format available, but there are racks of album specific itunes gift cards for sale in Best Buy.....so I think there might be a market. We'll see.

 

[Rob Logic]

I actually manage a Best Buy store and I have seen stuff like this creeping in slowly. There was a matchbox 20 release that was on a flashdrive that was a functional bracelet (gay) but none the less an actual physical format other than cd. We have sold albums on download cards whether it be iTunes cards or additional digital music sources for a while. My thoughts were, these will collect dust and won't sell, but damn they if they didn't fly. How many millions of tracks has iTunes sold. And how much money can it lose, if any, for an artist to already have these songs already in a format which, resolution and quality aside, would end up in a compressed audio format anyway? The first thing I do when I buy a disc, besides listening to it on the way home, is put it in my Macbook Pro and get that shiz in iTunes so I can get it on my iPod. I believe Egan is right. Most people don't care about the difference (or could tell the difference) between a "near cd quality" mp3 file and a 16 bit/44.1khz raw cd track.

 

[Metal Overload]

These guys in Mexico are doing it with USB Flashdrives, it´s pretty cool, the presentation and everything, but nah, i still prefer Cd´s, they are calling "The future of the Music"

Check www.myspace.com/craneomx

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Micro SD is to fucking small. I have one for my phone and if it wasn't in my phone, shit would be lost.

I get it though.

 

[JBroll]

Well, they have my support after interrupting some perfectly lovely Nine Inch Nails with their idiotic 'HAY LISTEN TO MEEE3E!' annoying strings bullshit player and completely failing to address even a few reasons why this is simply a bad idea.

Let's see... tiny-assed motherfucker whose size benefit is utterly obliterated when means of protecting and organizing are introduced and whose actual use is annoying to extremes I never knew before, no fucking chance of artwork EVER, catering to a subset of the population even smaller than iPod zombies... Sony, BMG, Virgin, and all the rest of you fucks, please do this so I can laugh at you some more.

Jeff

 

[Sloan]

FUCK THIS SHIT.

How about a KIOSK where I can take my own fucking card or mp3 player and just load it up with whatever the fuck albums i want at the store without having to wait to download them on internet?

Seriously.

Think about all the extra cards you would have laying around if you bought into this slotmusic bullshit. waste of time, space, and reasoning. FUCK IT.

 

[iekobrid]

We have sold albums on download cards whether it be iTunes cards or additional digital music sources for a while. My thoughts were, these will collect dust and won't sell, but damn they if they didn't fly.

Do those count as album sales for Best Buy or for iTunes (or both) when it comes time to rank the biggest music retailers?

 

[iekobrid]

Ghostbusters to be released on USB drive


' We don't know what file format and compression settings are used on the film yet, but a spokesperson for PNY explained to Custom PC that it does come with a form of DRM that prevents you from copying the movie. "They have DRM protection," explained the spokesperson, "so customers can download the movie onto their laptop or PC if they wish, but they have to have the USB drive plugged in to watch the movie, as the DRM is locked in the USB drive." '

 

[Metal Overload]

What´s the estimated lifespan of a USB Stick??

 

[iekobrid]

Typical flash memory drives are good for 10 to 100 thousand "erase/write cycles" before corrupting; some newer high end units claim 1 million.

 

[006]

No way this will pan out...

~006

 

[James Murphy]

I actually manage a Best Buy store and I have seen stuff like this creeping in slowly. There was a matchbox 20 release that was on a flashdrive that was a functional bracelet (gay) but none the less an actual physical format other than cd. We have sold albums on download cards whether it be iTunes cards or additional digital music sources for a while. My thoughts were, these will collect dust and won't sell, but damn they if they didn't fly. How many millions of tracks has iTunes sold. And how much money can it lose, if any, for an artist to already have these songs already in a format which, resolution and quality aside, would end up in a compressed audio format anyway? The first thing I do when I buy a disc, besides listening to it on the way home, is put it in my Macbook Pro and get that shiz in iTunes so I can get it on my iPod. I believe Egan is right. Most people don't care about the difference (or could tell the difference) between a "near cd quality" mp3 file and a 16 bit/44.1khz raw cd track.

i'm good friends with an asst. mgr. at my local Best Buy, and he says those matchbox 20 bracelets and all the download cards are essentially collecting dust and taking up space... just last night as well, an employee of the FYE in the mall here says they haven't sold a single "card" that he can recall since they got them in, months ago. they prob have, but obviously, if he can't recall it, they aren't flying off the shelves by any stretch. i patently refuse to buy a usb drive medium.. they die.... hard drives die... etc etc. i do not still have a functioning drive that's over 12 years old, of any description... i do however still have CDs that i bought 20 years ago... and they sound the same as the day i bought them.

 

[MetallyGuitarded]

i'm good friends with an asst. mgr. at my local Best Buy, and he says those matchbox 20 bracelets and all the download cards are essentially collecting dust and taking up space... just last night as well, an employee of the FYE in the mall here says they haven't sold a single "card" that he can recall since they got them in, months ago. they prob have, but obviously, if he can't recall it, they aren't flying off the shelves by any stretch. i patently refuse to buy a usb drive medium.. they die.... hard drives die... etc etc. i do not still have a functioning drive that's over 12 years old, of any description... i do however still have CDs that i bought 20 years ago... and they sound the same as the day i bought them.

Howard Johnson is right!