@marquis6461 wrote:
My question is this…
Now that the new update moved the SlotMusic to the first tier of the menu. I am wanting to create my own version of a SlotMusic chip. I have purchased a 8 GB chip and have most of my music on my computer system and downloaded to my FUZE to listen to. One of the features they are talking about is that slotradio and slotmusic are DRM free. So are my music files. I just want to same them on a chip too.
@Maybe just maybe I will be able to figure out the format. There is no way I am going to buy one of the chips at BEST BUY @ 45.00 a chip. It would have to be in the collection format I would love before I spend 50% of what the player cost for 1 chip.
Ah, it’s an economy of scale issue then? Just because the player is inexpensive, the media on it cannot be expected to be discounted. You’re purchasing two different products, you see. The SanDisk player is an incredible value if you really think about it. The wee machines cost slightly more than a service “contract” or extended warranty for some other players.
Yet we cannot expect a music vendor to radically discount their product, as we’re dealing with a different entity in this case. Don’t get me wrong, as I have a serious bone to pick with the record labels here too. Case in point:
In the eighties, when the Compact Disc debuted, it cost $1.01 (remembering the article, it’s been a long time, so bear with me- the numbers were so surprising that I committed them to memory) to produce a vinyl LP in its cardboard jacket. A Compact Cassette in its wee box cost $0.17, and a CD, in the jewel box, cost $0.11. The topic of the article was the demise of the Long Playing Record, and the economic realities of the time. Never mind that the average listener could pick up a CD transport cheaply, the discs were small and convenient, et cetera.
The scariest part in my mind was the margin involved: At the time, an LP sold for $7.99 average, close to the cassette, but the CD debuted at $24 and dropped to about $17. Interesting, the venerable CD never dropped until many years later. Look at the average CD price in its most economical venue, the Internet. If you wish to please the accountants, please factor-in shipping to adjust the actual price.
Download prices have been based upon the CD, divided by the number of tracks. Yet the record labels don’t have to produce anything more from an end product standpoint only than a single server connected to the internet. Please factor in the following costs to be fair to them. Now this is just the end product, for a fair comparison against the numbers in my wrinkled brain. Let’s see, server consumption in terms of kw/h, heat dissipation in BTU/h and the requisite cooling, illumination of the computer room, again a few more kw/h, and the lease on the few square feet of computer room floorspace. Yes you can add incidentals, the dillweed that checks whether the machine is still plugged in, and the dweeb that spilled a Pepsi on the generic keyboard, necessitating a replacement, if you wish.
Do you care to venture a guess at the end cost compared to a physical product. I wish to maintain my sanity, so I won’t.
Hey, cool! I made my own little sidebar. Back on point then? The SlotRadio and SlotMusic experiences and interface are quite different.
SlotMusic is fun, and you get a bulletproof metal-framed tank of a player to boot, with an absurdly simple control arrangement. If you add up the individual components, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It comes with a battery, headphones, and a µSD card installed. It’s surprising that they actually include a complete album into the deal. DRM-free 256kb/s resolution MP3 too.
The SlotRadio concept is a wee bit different. Back to the cost issue we must venture: the record labels have negotiated with SanDisk to provide a “captive” version of their product at a fraction of the current retail price. Again, think of economies of scale. How much is 1,000 songs at current download prices? I’ll wait until you can find that pocket calculator, shake the beads on that abacus, or go to the Start button on the PC, selecting Accessories > Calculator.
The negotiated deal is for pennies per song, and there are a lot of them on that µSD card. The tradeoff is that you can’t randomly select a specific song. If you could do that, why would you purchase the valuable individual track? Thus, the songs are arranged like in radio. For the younger crowd, that means “streaming audio off the Internet”.
In my younger days, I’ve had friends in the broadcast both, and in the transmitter engineer’s chair. To the chagrin of the station manager and the owner, I have participated in practical jokes in both venues, things that have popped up on the air. But I digress. You cannot have complete control over the access of the SlotRadio card, other than selecting a new “channel”, skipping forward, and having a look at the current track information. Come to think of it, I like being able to snap forward if the current song is irritating.
Changing the song used to involve a phone call. And I sometimes got a freshly cued track that they knew I detested, with the gain adjusted slightly. Thanks, man. It was fun, nevertheless. I won’t admit to any of those things found dangling from the tower, colored bulbs installed in the coil “hut”, or guy wires happily draped with flags and balloons appropriated from the local car dealership. Or tape cartridges mislabelled, LPs with wrong labels…I wouldn’t dream of doing such things.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Message Edited by neutron_bob on 10-20-2009 09:50 PM
