Rolling Stones sell new album on Memory Cards

The Rolling Stones' latest album, A Bigger Bang, will be the first to be released in the new flash memory card format developed by SanDisk.

The TrustedFlash format combines SD flash memory cards with a proprietary DRM technology that enables the contents of the card to be played on any compatible device - a phone, computer or PDA for example - but prevents any copying. The same DRM will allow paid-for music downloads to be saved directly to the card, and the technology already has the backing of Yahoo!, as well as record labels and device makers.

Music in the TrustedFlash format will be released under the excruciatingly named grüvi brand and will include so-called 'premium' content. The Stones' album, for instance, will also include previews of the band's back catalogue which can then be purchased either directly through a wireless device or a PC.

From PC Pro

This is gonna be cool, I was thinking about this a few months ago when I bought a 5 CD, VCD! Definately saving space and it's COOL!

It's really cool that you find this cool but the "prevents any copying" doesn't look cool at all.

So I assume that with this flash memory card you won't be able to copy the music you PAID on your computer, or on your mp3 player. You may not be able to burn it on a CD too, so you won't be able to listen it in your car.

That DRM system is a big step backward and simply limits your freedom.

It won't save them from copying for a long time. In this day & age, pretty much anything will have a solution to it. Sooner or later someone will develop something that'll be able to copy it.

It's a nifty idea though.

It's too limited. It's another way to get people to stop copying, but like alexboom said, you can't play it on your mp3 player, or in your car. And as Jackal said, sooner or later, this "prevents any copying" tag will be removed as people always, always finds a way to crack it.

yeah for sure, some guys will hack it pretty quickly, but i'm still a little fed up with the idea of cracking something you bought in order to use it the way you want (and you'd expect)

(last time it happens with Madden NFL 2002: it doesn't work under XP without the official patch, but you can only download it via the CD-Rom menu... And of course, the official patch is no longer available... so i had to download the crack to play at last the game on XP )

it's sucks arent rolling stones like 100 years old men ..they should b giving music for free n letting fans copy

Why do that when millions of people still buy their albums?

meh, it'll take someone a week to crack through this. There's practically nothing anyone can do to prevent the trading of music.