The music industry has been one of those most changed by the Internet, and despite the boom in online music download services, it’s interesting to see that today the music companies have launched a new physical format for music called slotMusic. Pocket Picks says:

slotMusic is a fancy way of saying DRM-free MP3 laden microSD cards. SanDisk and a collection of big name record companies (including the four horsemen EMI Music, SONY BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group) have grouped together to bring the new physical music format to retail.

So - is it the future of mobile media? Physical will never die completely - people still like to handle a physical product, even if it is really tiny in this case. The removal of digital rights management (DRM) is also interesting - DRM is a controversial subject and we could now see the turning of the tide on that front.

For me, there’s bits of the idea I like. It’s good to see a bit of thought put into it - the cards won’t just have music on them but also cover art, videos and other content (presumably optimised for smaller screens). Entertainment is now multiformat and people have come to expect it. The distribution is also clever - using a format that is widespread and people know already, without having to get new phones or equipment to read it. But I’m not sure if I like the idea of carrying lots of SD cards around with me and facing the potential of losing them (they are pretty small after all). Maybe if I had one card which I could recharge with music in-store for a subscription would save that. What do you think?

Finally, it’s worth noting that the cards aren’t just for mobile - they’re also usable on PCs and other devices, and come with a USB adapter to boot. And if you lose it, well that’s just an excuse for getting hold of this cute ladybird microSD card reader I saw over at Coolest Gadgets and just had to blog about.