The easy answer to that question is no but I am not speaking about bodily limbs here. As the music industry continues to evolve there have been many arguments about licensing digital music from the days of Napster to the current times of iTunes. While artists are diligently working to get the most return on the publishing of their talent, the digital music format has made it easier for piracy and copyright infringement. One would argue that it would be a massive undertaking for the community to monitor and police the legal use of digital media published by these artists. In perspective, it seems that the industry agrees and is taking steps towards alternative approaches to helping the artists to get the income they deserve.

I know that it may sound like a broken record. I also realize that a ton of us are tired of hearing this same old story but, anyone that has tried to make a song would agree that there is no easy way to create music. Being able to create sounds and beats that are pleasing to the ear and that move you involve a substantial amount of talent. In order to recuperate some of the lost opportunities for income, artists have tried things such as distribution of music on flash USB drives, as promotional items. Although the drives did not quite catch on, they have migrated to the use of SlotMusic.

SlotMusic is a concept that uses flash memory to contain an entire album on a micro SD (secure digital) card. The SD card can be used between devices such as your mobile phone, mp3 player and your personal computer. Some of the benefits that SlotMusic has to offer are the inclusion of the lyrics, album art and video, in addition to the ability to store your own content on this writable card. Because the content on the card is free of DRM (digital rights management) it appears that the strategy is to make some money for the licensing artists on economies of scale.

Whether or not this medium of delivering musical content will catch on is yet to be seen but, it is definitely an interesting concept. Some may argue that the days of delivering music on flash media have died but, I would argue that there are additional marketing and technology techniques that can make this an invaluable tool. After all if there is extra room on the card, there is an opportunity to put some fun stuff on there.