SanDisk debuts the slotMusic Player

If you're traveling, and you want to purchase new music to listen to on your MP3 player or cell phone without resorting to a laptop, you probably already know you have an option to buy music on microSD cards. As Chris Null noted, SanDisk teamed up with the world's four largest music companies to offer MP3 player owners DRM-free tracks on slotMusic cards loaded with tunes that will be played back at up to 320 kilobits per second (kbps).

Of course, this new medium is ideal if your device has a micro SD slot, but if it doesn't, SanDisk has introduced a $20 player that plays music stored on any micro SD card. The Sansa slot Music Player doesn't seem to have an LCD screen, but it's small enough to fit in your pocket and weighs a little over two ounces.

There are two types of players: a Sansa-branded player and an artist-branded player. The $20 Sansa-branded player ships with a simple black shell, earphones and battery, while the special artist-branded player costs a little more ($35) because it ships with a 1GB slot Music card preloaded with the artist's album, liner notes, album art, and other content chosen by the artists themselves. Artists such as Coldplay, Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Weezer, will be releasing their albums on the 1GB memory cards, and perhaps even release artist-branded players in the future.

Both players are available at Best Buy and Wal-Mart along with the slotMusic cards. Right now the player ships with earphones, and its own USB adaptor so you can load the music to your computer, but to make this player more appealing, SanDisk plans to introduce accessories for it like an armband, custom shells, and a card wallet.

The idea sounds ok, but I'm not sure people will want to buy their music on tiny microSD cards. Personally, I can't even remember the last time I bought an actual CD, do you?

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SanDisk bringing music on microSD cards to market