The Rolling Stones Get Gruvi With SanDisk

Following hot on the heels of SanDisk's announcement yesterday on a new line of memory cards with pre-recorded multimedia content, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that a version of the Rolling Stones next album "A Bigger Band" will be available on memory cards in November for fans of the geriatric band for the low, low price of $39.95.

So what does that price get you? Copyright-protected content and the opportunity to preview, purchase and download songs -- directly from the card -- of the band’s back catalog, through either a PC or a supported mobile phones. Woo hoo!

Analyst Richard Doherty at Envisioneering Group said, "We see this announcement as only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of studios and labels who say, 'Oh, I can work with this.'"
The Gruvi cards come in miniSD, microSD and SD formats, with up to 2 GB of memory.

Harry Wang at Parks Associates added, "In the future, this media platform can be used to download movie content online." However, he expressed skepticism that consumers would be willing to purchase expensive flash cards with content "when they have shown they only want two or three songs they like that they can download off iTunes."

Let me first preface this by saying I've never been a big fan of the Rolling Stones, but that is neither here nor there. This format might be great for the music industry, but did anyone ever ask consumers what they wanted? As I stated earlier, I think there is a market for pre-recorded mobile mulitmedia content on memory cards, but there has to be some value add and/or pricing has to be comparable to CDs and DVDs. At $39.99 a pop it's hard to justify the purchase unless you really need access to the Rolling Stone's back catalog in digital form.

I know it's an apples to oranges comparison, but I can go on iTunes and get a special version of Death Cab for Cutie's latest ablum "Plans" for $11.99. What do I get for that price? The album of course, but also a making of the album video and a special cover version of Teenage Fanclub's song "Start Again" both of which are not available on the CD. Oh yeah, I can also purchase Rolling Stones songs and albums as well. And best of all, I can transfer everything to my smartphone.

So why do I need to spend $39.99?