SanDisk Makes Music Even Less Convenient
from the this-is-progress? dept
SanDisk is getting a bunch of press for releasing what it's positioning as a new "format" for music. But it's not a new format at all. SanDisk is simply sticking mp3s onto a microSD card, reasoning that lots of folks now carry phones with microSD slots in them. That's true (I've got one of those phones), but that hardly makes this a compelling offering. First of all, microSD cards are tiny. They're not the sort of thing that people want to pop in and out of their phones like a CD or a floppy disk. If you do that, you'll probably end up losing the microSD. So, most folks I know simply put a single microSD card in their phones and just use it as expanded storage. Besides, these days, most folks know that removable storage is annoyingly inconvenient compared to just using a blank disc and moving around the music you already have. I don't want to have to remember to put a specific microSD card into my phone if I want to hear a band -- especially when it's ridiculously easy for me to just transfer music from my computer to my phone instead. SanDisk claims that this will work because people don't know how to download music -- but they might be surprised if they actually went and spoke to people, rather than making up stuff in an effort to sell more microSD cards.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agreed . . . doesnt make much sense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The larger problem
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The larger problem
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The larger problem
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's not a bad thing...
Why are you complaining? Take the card, import to itunes, transfer to your cel phone or PDA's 'expanded storage' card or just copy them to your media center PC. Then do whatever you want to do with the 1GB card.
One huge plus is that I won't be adding any more bulky CD's to my VCR-sized 'disc binder' again...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not So Bad
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
No, SanDisk's plans will not be a music revolution, as it is simply shifting the the type of media (CD to microSD), and not the distribution system. However, it is not a bad idea. SanDisk already manufactures flash cards, so they can build the cards very cheaply. They are distributing the music in a format that can be used even if they abandon this market a year from now, so it is good for consumers (at least as good as CDs).
Will this combat piracy or iTunes for an even remotely significant sliver of market share? Probably not, but if SanDisk can use music to sell a few more memory cards and make some profit, then more power to them. Sometimes, a small-but-profitable market can be as useful as a huge market with scant margins. The question is whether SanDisk can generate a profit. We'll just have to wait and see.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Don't take an Ipod only view
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Don't take an Ipod only view
This isn't much different than distributing movies on a USB stick. It'll be interesting to see if the market for either takes off.
"Makes music even less convenient", though? Really? How so? The files are not encrypted and can be transferred to PC, which means you can transfer them to another card at will. Come on, Mike, read the article and stop making up facts. You are not forced to put in a specific card for a specific artist. Once you get to a PC, you can move files around however you see fit, moving all the ones you want to a single card if that's how you roll.
All this does is provide another way to get the files in the first place, an alternative to downloading them off of an online service. (Perhaps some people don't want to subscribe to iTunes or other download services, or don't have convenient broadband internet access, or can't find the tunes they want for download in a legal, DRM-free package?)
This actually provides the added benefit in that the distribution mechanism (the micro-SD card) can then be reused for your own personal use, which as some pointed out (those with cell phones that don't come with cables to connect to computers, but do have micro-SD slots) is actually more convenient in some cases.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Don't take an Ipod only view
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
in defense of sandisk
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This lacks something, but it can work.
It looks like this is being marketed as an on-the-go application, but I fear microSD/Transflash is too small. Most phones only have one microSD slot, which many people use to store photos. This means that a user has to eject their valued microSD with pictures every time they want to play a new tune. However, if the market demand was there to create a phone/device with a 2nd connector, it may address many issues.
Another challenge is loss of cards, as mentioned by an earlier commenter. microSD cards are freaking small. The size of a pinky-nail. If they are lost/broken/go through the laundry and burn in the dryer, it may lead to a negative overall customer experience and dilatory adoption.
Hardware.
Besides the obvious lack of platform ambiguity and ability to play music at home or in the car, understand that most phones use a push-push type of microSD media-ejection connector. Sadly, these are only rated for a couple thousand- cycle life. Over a 2-year period, this means an average of a few cycles per day over a 2-year mobile phone contract term. But this applies only when the customer knows what they are doing, and not just leaving the bar-- It's probably pretty easy to push a card in with such force that it breaks an internal solder.
http://www3.alps.com/WebObjects/catalog.woa/E/PDF/Connector/microSD_Card/SCHA/SCHA.PDF
Sales.
Prominent display at a retailer will drive platform adoption. This means packaging designed to thwart inventory shrink (theft). Something with value over $0.25 shouldn't be able to stick to the bottom of a shoe with gum, and unless packaging discourages theft, it may have trouble growing in adoption.
Summary.
While these challenges should be addressed, they aren't insurmountable. I am hopeful that SanDisk, et al. has some people smarter than me working on overcoming these challenges.
But overall, the concept can work, and it's great that the industry is thinking this way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This lacks something, but it can work.
Besides people storing photos on their microSD cards, I keep my contacts on it as well. For me, having to pull out my regular card to insert a music-filled card and lose my contacts while I listen to music would be a pain @ss.
With that said, I now many people who have phones with a microSD slot but no card and they buy music through their cellular provider because they didn't know they could buy a microSD card and put music on it themselves.
Like the very first comment states, the market will decide...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This lacks something, but it can work.
Good points, tho.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If I have to remove the battery... No thanks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's not like sticking a tape into a tape recorder...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Techdirt consistently overestimates the technical savvy and willingness to manage tech among the general consumer market. Pew just stated that broadband adoption in the US -- a necessity for any sort of self-directed music setu -- is stalled at just over 50%.
As stated, this is a bit of a niche market. But I'd say there is a lot of potential here filling the gap between a subscription service (which is great but requires users to be well-connected and tech savvy) and a traditional music buyer (who can't use a phone or MP3 player). A subscription to 512Mb or 1GB of (potential customized, potentially ad-driven) music on a card every month might be just the ticket for a currently unserved segment.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL @ SanDisk
Thats why iTunes has been such a miserable failure, right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Two things....
But more important is the story we haven't heard -- how did they get the big names to go DRM-free? Is it a gimmick or a sign of greater things to come? Just because I believe the former doesn't mean I can't hope for the latter. Which is it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
USB Sleeve
That makes transferring to any device pretty easy, and eliminates the issues with downloaded files when the DRM server is shut down.
I don;t know thatI would buy many of these, but I don't buy much music anyway - my CD collection is pretty complete with the music I like (and most of the bands I would want to get are no longer turning out songs!).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lame
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is the possible loss of your phone (until you can access a charger) while you're on the go worth ditching the iPod? Not by a long shot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe they're realizing, finally, that they aren't in the business of selling shiny plastic discs (unlikely), and have shifted to yet another physical container.
A micro-SD card is far too easy to lose (it's small), and I'm not going to switch out cards. It's why I have an 8GB one to begin with.
Woadan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EPIC FAIL!!!
ASSUME people will download, embrace that. So what is it that YOU are bringing to the table that will make me want to pay?
Cause this ain't shit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: EPIC FAIL!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i play music off SD card on my phone
the setup was expensive, but it's really convenient.
i bought a blank card and loaded the music myself, so it's drm free.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which article...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My problem is all my music is stored on regular SD cards for my MP3 player (Palm TX) why carry two devises. Why should I have to change?
By the way my phone (N95-4) does not come with a micro SD slot (8 GB internal memory)and that is a high end phone.
The N95 (Nokia) N95-1, -2, -3 all came with micro SD slots but the latest model -4 Nokia dropped the micro SD slot.
Maybe SanDisk and media/phone makers should talk.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Huh?
Usually I agree with you, Mike, but I think that you're off base on this one.
First, storage is storage is storage. I don't care if it's a CD or a memory card. There's really not much of a difference, except that I can't use a blank disc or a floppy to put music on my telephone, and once I burn a CD, it's generally burned forever, unlike removable storage.
Second, most computer don't come with floppy disc drives nowadays. You have to pay extra. So mentioning floppies doesn't even make sense. Computers have been coming with a memory card station meant to hold all kinds of cards, which is where I stick my micro-SD adapter to put new music on it, before I transfer it to my telephone's permanent storage.
So removable storage is easy and convenient to use as long as your telephone has enough memory to avoid being tied to the card. However, being tied to the card is no different than being tied to the CD, so I don't see how it's worse. Actually, it seems like a CD would be worse because it's much harder to rewrite a CD and amazingly easy to change what's on a memory card.
Third, it's not easy at all to add music to my telephone without a card. I have to use the Internet and that's costs a ton for me since I don't have a plan... And don't think I should have to pay for a plan when the microSD card came with the telephone for free.I feel much freer with my SD card than I ever did with the Internet... Or CDs for that matter...
Just my two cents... :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Plenty of MicroSD storage options
Anyway, there are many option available for carrying several SD or MicroSD cards with you. The one I prefer looks like a thick business card and fits easily in a wallet while holding six MicroSD cards. With 8GB now selling for under $30, you can have a pretty amazing amount of data in your pocket with no severe added bulk.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
la la la
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
you make me sick --- might as well go back to 78's
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i laughed so much when i read this, perhaps the SanDisk ppl should have a talk to the RIAA ppl i wonder who would convince who.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The whole boasting of DRM free MP3's makes this whole thing down right laughable. It's so schitzophrenic for the industry to just now capitulate on the format because a physical medium is in the equation but very typical because a physical medium is in the equation. The industry has never sold music. They sell things that just happen to have music on them.
Personally, the ONLY way this approaches worthwhile is if music were packed onto these things in a tribute/anthology fashion. With a fair price, that has an impulse buy quality written all over it. Single album? Pass!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The benefits I see of DVDs over digital files is that you still get more with DVDs. I still have yet to see a digital download file that offers multiple languages, extras, director's commentary, or even so much as a chapter menu. (Legally-distributed. You do see this in straight ISO rips of the DVDs themselves, but I can't say I've seen those for sale yet.) Why is it foolish to buy this on a disc instead of paying for just the movie to be streamed digitally? Especially if you don't have a computer hooked up to your living room TV or a fancier DVD player that can play media off of USB?
Their target market here is going to be people who don't download music already for whatever reason. These are going to be people who still buy music in terms of albums rather than by song.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mike forgets the biggest reason not to like this format -- that you're getting pre-compressed music -- and picks up on this, "they're so small you'll lose them!" argument.
Personally, I like the small form factor, the lack of DRM, and the fact the cards can be re-used. A lot of other sentences are head-scratchers, too.
- "Not a new format at all?" Well, MP3 isn't new, but buying music on a microSD card is.
- "most folks know that removable storage is annoyingly inconvenient compared to just using a blank disc and moving around the music you already have." Um, ok, what is a blank disc if not removeable media? And what kind of blank disc are you talking about? A floppy can't hold even one song. A CD holds a whole 700MB (a fraction of a music collection), and a DVD, dual-sided, a whole 9GB. That's if you wanna sit around and wait for the burn process to complete, a time-consuming and arduous task even with the fastest burners. If I didn't have a network handy (or if I had a huge amount of files to move) I would probably use -- a flash drive/SD card! Those microSD cards are coming out in 32GB sizes and soon much larger.
- "I don't want to have to remember to put a specific microSD card into my phone if I want to hear a band -- especially when it's ridiculously easy for me to just transfer music from my computer to my phone instead." Hm. I suppose you COULD walk around with a microSD "wallet" full of your purchased music, but I assume most people will COPY the music to their device and use the card as backup or erase it and use it for storage.
I think this *physical* format will indeed be more convenient and appealling for a lot of users who will be able to walk into a store, buy music, and listen to it immediately on their phone. (But sadly, not their iPods and iPhones, until Apple gets a clue and starts adding a microSD slot to those devices.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Self-regulation
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Self-regulation
Let's take this conversation back to this story. Don't you just hate it when we committed the online equivalent of accidentally walking into the Women's restroom? :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i swap cards on my treo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stupid People Assuming We're Stupid Too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Stupid People Assuming We're Stupid Too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think it's pretty cool, the only drawback might be people will stop buying them when they realize they're phones battery will die after about 2 or three hours of music.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
....
DSD, Vinyl or STFU
bbb
wheatus.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]