With the aim to ease the aged and unloved audio CD into the retirement home, SanDisk is joining forces with some of the biggest music labels. 

It was announced today by Milpitas, makers of flash memory that in order to roll out a new music medium based on its microSD cards; the company has entered in a partnership with four companies. The new music medium will include full-length, pre-loaded albums and additional content, called slotMusic. The format is very useful as it will be compatible with more than a billion cell phones, MP3 players, PCs and game consoles, which will give music lovers a whole new way to experience their music. 

General Manager and senior vice president of SanDisk Audio/Video, Daniel Schreiber reported, “We see slotMusic as the album of the 21st century and something that makes sense for people today.”

The slotMusic cards, which are about a size of a fingernail, would retail in Wal-Mart and Best Buy outlets. Though the price of the card has not yet been announced, Schreiber informed that they will be equal to other music options. 

The four companies which will lend their support to slotMusic include names of EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. Further these companies will experiment by mixing old and new albums using this format. 

Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of eLabs for Universal Music Group, expressed, “It's about providing more choice for consumers. It's a mode of getting music that has no friction. It just plays. It gives people the benefits of digital music with no headaches.”

He further informed that these cards will help the companies to recover the money they had been losing due to increasing unpopularity of the CDs.