I was reading the announcement from Sandisk concerning their SLotmusic player.

http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/PressRoom...se.aspx?ID=4401

This is what I don't understand. It says: " The branded player comes pre-loaded with an album on a 1GB 1 slotMusic card.". Well, you can put the whole album in WAV format on 1GB card, and still have at least 200 MB spare. There is no need to compress. Yet it says that the music is compressed, MP3, 320Kbps. Why?

Because it's much quicker to copy onto the cards? Only guessing.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

This thread does not directly answer your question but has a lot of interesting information and opinions on the slotmusic format. slotmusic thread

My post in that thread does.

Buy your collectors slotmusic card today because I believe under its current incarnation it will be gone tomorrow! Does anyone remember DataPlay Inc. who in 2001 produce a small optical unit about the size of quarter encased in a protective housing with a storage capacity of 500mb. Look what happened to them. Sure the micro SD card has a larger storage capacity and is a little smaller without copy protection but so what. Back in 2001 Toshiba introduced a player that played SD cards and that went no where. I think tweens and teens agers will be this product as novelty at first then abandon it after they get tired of changing and loosing cards. The global economy is in the toilet and this is the perfect to introduce a new audio format when discretionary spending is declining throughout the world. Good luck slotmusic may the force be with you.

mp3 is more than likely used as it is a recognized format, can hold ID3 tag information, and it allows people to use the files on all other portable audio devices. They could use WAV but then the tracks wouldn't hold ID tag information (WAV itself can but these files are not compatible with the majority of software and hardware on the market) and people would have to transcode down using a lossy encoder for portable use. They could also use a lossless format like FLAC but then again, I doubt many of the teens/tweens out there know what to do with a FLAC file. They will try to open it in Windows Media Player or iTunes and fail.

This has been discussed previously and the majority of people here (maybe all the people) know that this format is going to fail miserably. Many different companies have tried to come by over the years and replace CD. Sony released their MiniDisc which was loved by the niche recording group but that was it as the format never fully replaced CD, Toshiba tried to push albums on SD media and they failed, and there have been many other formats. Downloading has been the only distribution method that looks like it will replace CDs. The idea of spending $14.99 for lossy music on a microSD card seems ridiculous. Why would I do that when I can spend $6.99-$8.99 and buy the album from Amazon's mp3 store or spend $9.99-$14.99 and buy the album on CD?

This whole thing has failure written all over it. The market will still be ruled by the iTunes Store and CDs. People will continue to use their iPods and see no need to carry around a case filled with 1GB microSD cards along with a whole new player.

As it's a Sandisk project, I guess the idea might be to push a few more cards in the obsolescent 1 GB size? I.e. the music is a promotional gimmick, not the main point of the deal.

I agree the format was conceived to sell Sandisk's micro SD cards. The first reason the record went along with Sandisk's plan is to try to regain control over distribution methods. The second reason the record embraced a new format is cripple the secondary sales market for used CD's. The record industry does not profit at when someone purchases a used CD. The music purchased on a used CD can ripped into any format the buyer chooses without limitation of first source loss like MP3 which is a lossy format. I am sure many people buy the used CD to rip the music and resell the CD. The record industry has been slighted twice is this type of activity. I don't see a huge secondary market for used micro SD slotmusic cards containing a lossy music files.

Another reason I don't see this new format as being a great success is the packaging I have seen does not look like it contains any cover art. It appears the cover art is part of the packaging. I often like to read the lyrics and album notes contained in the CD cover art. Click on the link for a picture of the packaging slotmusic packaging. Also note at this time there are only forty titles available, not exactly the grand introduction you would expect. Most of the titles seem geared to towards younger listeners.

I never thought of that. 1GB cards are becoming the el-cheapo standards these days with many people looking at capacities of 4GB and higher. I currently have a 16GB SHDC card in my Creative Zen that set me back by $30 and a 2GB microSD card in my cellphone that I picked up for $7. So this might be SanDisk's way to get rid of the 1GB microSD card lying around.

Yes, that's a nice post. I still think they should offer at least the capabilities to handle WAV and may be AAC.

For instance, in my case I have fairly large CD collection. I still use portable CD player. With this Sandisk hardware, I can quickly copy a few CDs 'at it is', with no compression, to SDHC format and carry them with me. Seems like it's nice substitute for having portable CD player and carrying CD around. Of course, besides portability, it doesn't offer any advantages over CD player. Roughly the same functionality, but I wouldn't mind.