Sandisk have announced a “new music format” called slotMusic. The concept basically consists of pre-installed Micro-SD cards with some small artwork, predominately for use with mobile phones. All the majors are on board, to some degree at least, and the format is being pushed hard for the Christmas period.

Couple of observations:
– So even this new “format” goes DRM-free but 80 odd percent of the online music market and just about all of the mobile music market remains weighed down by DRM and the majors wonder why digital music isn’t offsetting the impact of declining CD sales?
– The success of the format depends upon consumers opting to walk into a participating store (which may well be an issue) chose from a probably limited catalogue (anyone remember the pitiful sight of MD album sections in music shops?) and then remove their existing memory card to slot the album in. Begs the question, why wouldn’t they just download it from an online store and sideload it?
– Also, the initiative is going to look pretty flat compared to Comes With Music

Yes the music industry is in need of a new format to revive its fortunes, I’m just not convinced that this is it. I’d love to be proved wrong though.