SanDisk Corporation today made entertainment history by launching gruvi, the first removable flash memory card of its type to be sold with premium music content. And SanDisk's debut release in this new medium is none other than A Bigger Bang from EMI Music's Virgin Records, the bestselling album from the legendary Rolling Stones. The announcement was made at a press conference during the CTIA Show in Moscone West Convention Center, where SanDisk is demonstrating its products at Booth 944.
Available in November, the gruvi music version of A Bigger Bang will be offered on SanDisk's microSD (TransFlash ) card. Millions of those cards already have been shipped to handset manufacturers for use in mobile phones worldwide. Roughly the size of a fingernail, the gruvi card comes with an adapter that can expand it to the size of a larger SD card, thus enabling it to be played in a variety of SD-compatible devices including laptop computers and PDAs.
The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang, the band's first studio album in eight years, has been unanimously hailed by critics and fans. The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour launched in the U.S. in August.
The gruvi music card includes the album along with bonus content that is offered exclusively in this unique format. A Bigger Bang is the first music release to use SanDisk's new TrustedFlash technology, which also was announced today at the CTIA show. TrustedFlash enables content providers to lock content to the card - using a rights management protocol that is on the card itself - but gives consumers the freedom to play the card, and thus the content they own, in a variety of supported devices. This is in contrast to closed, proprietary systems that restrict content to a single device.
Apart from getting all of the tracks on the new Rolling Stones album, consumers also will be able to preview and purchase - directly from the card - other Rolling Stones music from the band's back catalog, through either a PC or a supported mobile phone. A Bigger Bang on the gruvi music card will have a suggested retail price of $39.95 at select retailers, where it is scheduled for release in early November.
"Once again the Rolling Stones have revolutionized the music industry by releasing the first album in our gruvi music card format," said Pedro Vargas, SanDisk director of mobile entertainment. "SanDisk has been rocking the music world with portable music players and industry-leading memory cards, and now, using our TrustedFlash technology, SanDisk and EMI Music are bringing A Bigger Bang to mobile phones, laptops and other devices."
"We're delighted to partner with SanDisk, the acknowledged leader in mobile memory, in releasing the new Rolling Stones album on the gruvi music card," said Syd Schwartz, vice president interactive marketing for Virgin Records. "TrustedFlash allows us to digitally offer premium content on flash memory cards in a way that prevents unauthorized distribution. We look forward to expanding our gruvi catalog next year with albums from other well-known artists."
The gruvi music card with A Bigger Bang is easy to use and will come with all of the necessary software to play in supported mobile phones or on a laptop PC. SanDisk collaborated with a powerful team of industry experts to enable the functionality of the card, including companies such as Pocket Tunes, Yahoo! Music, NDS and Click & Buy.
