Slot Music - Another Competing Format?

[Craig]

Apparently, "Slot Music" is supposed to be an up and coming format and is expected to compete with the CD format. It's basically MP3 music on an SD chip that you can buy at any retail location.

Since it's an SD chip it can be used in any player that has an SD slot to include MP3 players, PCs, PDAs, Cell Phones, etc. However, it will not work with an iPod. I have my doubts about its sound quality and it's just another format that compromises sound quality for convenience. At least it is not DRM restricted and that is a big plus.

Does this have a chance of including high-rez music such as 24/196 or will it be low-rez to keep cost and file size low?

http://www.slotmusic.org/

 

[TomDac]

interesting idea, but I don't see this taking off...purchasing music online will be the way of the future.. like iTunes, but more format selections.

So you can go to CDuniverse, find the artist and title you wish to buy and click a button to pay and then download it at the format of your choosing... Different price points for different formats.. lossless would be more, of course..

 

[amey01]

You never know, and I have seen stranger things happen, but for me at least - what's the darn point if you have to go to a retail location and find/buy a physical product. Stupid. The main advantage of downloading for me is that you can search/download rather than drive/find physical stock/buy something physical.

 

[Craig]

But downloading is dependent on having an internet connection and bandwidth. Sometimes it's just easier to pick up something while in a store. If your traveling in your car you can pick up slot music at the gas station and play in your car.

It will also be videos, photos and just about anything media related that can be in digital form. This also has the backing of major corporate media suppliers like EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group as well as major retail outlets.

I think this format will quickly have a significant presence but it will be a long time before something replaces the CD. It's just too well established and will likely be around from sometime.

 

[tonepub]

My worry is losing the damn things!

I have a couple of cameras that use the SD format and I hate those little cards only because I'm always worried about losing em!

 

[Cherian]

A Standard CD can hold about 750 megs an SD (memory card) card much more without any moving parts. SD card can house the information is redbook format SACD format any format you wish. It all depends on how they want to provide the data. I think this is a great idea. Think about it players with no moving parts.

 

[amey01]

But downloading is dependent on having an internet connection and bandwidth. Sometimes it's just easier to pick up something while in a store. If your traveling in your car you can pick up slot music at the gas station and play in your car.

Why not just a CD then? Why yet again something else? Everyone has CD players, noone has slot players in their car.

Problem is, before something like this takes hold, we'll all have 100meg internet connections at home and probably wireless connections fast enough in our cars to ensure streaming. I can already stream MP3 files from my SlimServer to my mobile 'phone. Almost makes my iPod redundant! Won't be long before that connection is good enough and fast enough to allow full FLAC streaming.

Funnily enough, it's the home internet connection (upload of the MP3 stream) that holds me back, not my mobile access. We live out in the bush a long way from anything and internet access is very slow with frequent dropouts!

 

[Craig]

Why not just a CD then? Why yet again something else? Everyone has CD players, noone has slot players in their car.

CD players are everywhere which is why that format may survive as long as the vinyl record format has. I'll bet we see slots in home and car audio at the next CES show and they already exist in televisions.

 

[amey01]

CD players are everywhere which is why that format may survive as long as the vinyl record format has. I'll bet we see slots in home and car audio at the next CES show and they already exist in televisions.

There are already slots in some audio equipment. My sister's Yamaha DVD player has one. Problem is, why would anyone "buy" music on a "slot" when they can buy it in full quality on CD or download it (without going anywhere) in MP3?

I guess - stranger things have happened!!

 

[Craig]

I have no interest in adopting this format unless the sound quality is up to SACD or DVD-A standards but it will interesting to see how this plays out. I'm curious to see where the price point will be. It could potentially be less than CDs due to low production costs and very small packaging to ship but if it's pricey then its certainly doomed. If it's one of those micro SD chips I'm certain to lose it in the carpet but I'm sure the vacuum cleaner would find it.