Distributing music on USB sticks or removable flash memory is an idea various parties have tried for the last few years. The Creative Commons advocates at self-proclaimed “non-evil” indie label Magnatune sold USB sticks pre-loaded with ten albums in 2004; Barenaked Ladies had the nicely-named Barenaked on a stick. But to really make the idea (ahem) stick, you’d need some big distribution. And that’s what a new initiative backed by the major labels and massive flash memory manufacturer SanDisk promises to do.

slotMusic.org | Press Release

See also GearLog, which notes that SanDisk previously did a free promotional SD of music

Wired News asks, “but why?”, to which I’d answer – it might well be easier to load music onto a phone in parts of the world other than the US, you might more easily distribute videos, and artists looking to increase the value of their CDs could innovate on revitalizing album art.

First, let’s start with the players, as that’s basically the big news here.

Hardware: SanDisk, the folks who invented flash storage and make more of it than anyone else

Labels: A huge set of the majors – EMI Music (which includes the likes of Angel, Capitol, Blue Note, and Astrelwerks), Sony BMG, Warner Music (including Atlantic, Nonesuch, Rhino), and the world’s biggest music company, Universal Music Group

Retailers: Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and other US retailers, with Europe to follow – keeping in mind, Wal-Mart remains the biggest brick-and-mortar seller in the US

When it’s happening: Exact date TBA, but officially by the holidays

Which artists: Most likely, lots of them. An EMI representative who spoke with CDM confirmed two chart-topping examples: Coldplay’s Viva la Vida and Kate Perry’s One of the Boys.

Now, you’d be right to be skeptical of how this format will be received, but it’s certainly a big distribution play with that arrangement of labels and retailers.

The hardware in question is basically SanDisk’s tiny removable flash memory format microSD, rebranded and repackaged as slotMusic. (A representative of SanDisk tells us there are some other subtle technological differences; more on that soon.) The important thing about this is that the hardware you buy has no DRM on it at all; it’s just standard flash memory you can plug into phones and mobile devices, or, via a tiny included USB sleeve, a computer.

SanDisk’s format specifies DRM-free, 320 kpbs MP3s as the music format. Gruvi, SanDisk’s previous attempt at turning their lucrative flash memory business into a music format was a miserable failure, but by contrast, it was locked with DRM features and, excepting a big release by the Rolling Stones, lacked support from labels and retailers. (I see Gruvi has even been largely erased from SanDisk’s website.)

With all this talk of mobile music creation, it’s time to get a little scientific. Which mobile digital platforms do you actually own? Which do you want to read about on CDM? We have, of course, lots of interesting stuff happening with actual mobile computers – think UMPC, Eee, and OLPC – but then, those fit nicely with other computing platforms since that’s what they are. Other handheld game systems, PDAs, and phones require real, specific attention for musicians. And naturally, this is about making music on mobile systems, not necessarily playing Mario Kart.

We need to know what you think. Your feedback will help us direct the site. Don’t worry, we still love things that no one else does, so fear not if you’re in a more obscure category – though you will want to get your votes in.

This is also a chance to sign up for our soon-to-launch email list, which we’ll use for human-created, exclusive dispatches from team CDM in a form that makes sense for our overburdened inboxes. (It won’t duplicate anything else, and it won’t be too often, and it won’t be sold to anyone else – it’s just another way for me and the team to chat with you.)

So, here goes – you’ll need to click through to the actual site to finish the survey, or head straight to:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/61300/yvwf9

Respond now; poll closes Monday 8/18

Photo credit: Yesrobot’s Game Boy rig, captured by Alícia

Don’t toss that Windows Mobile gadget yet. In fact, you might want to keep glued to Craig’s List for a used unit, if you like the idea of road warrior music production on the cheap, sans laptop.

Amidst all the hype around the iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices could actually win on power apps for on-the-go music making. Maybe that’s because of the similarity to developing Windows desktop apps, maybe it’s because of fewer restrictions compared to Apple’s SDK, or maybe some combination of that and fortune. Nonetheless, during this Summer of iPhone, the makers of powerful Windows Mobile sequencer/sampler studio Griff note on their new blog that Windows Mobile just got a new music app.

Yes, you read that right: a new app for Windows Mobile.

Wildly enough, MeTeoR is basically a pocket-able miniature DAW, boasting:

• 12 tracks of audio with stereo mixdown
• Audio waveform editing with cut, copy, paste, and processing (fade, normalize, reverse, etc.)
• Various effects (delay, chorus, reverb, phaser, filters, pitch shift, noise gate, graphic EQ, and more), with routable aux sends
• Metronome with live recording
• A mixer with full automation envelopes for each tracks (for the mixer lanes and effects)

The whole thing is basically reminiscent of an old version of Cakewalk for Windows, only running in your pocket. I could see it as fairly useful for doing some quick processing or pre-processing on a big project – load those extra files on the subway and keep working on that project, even if you’re up against a deadline.

Not only that, but because the system requirements are fairly flexible and used Windows Mobile devices are fairly worthless, you could easily rescue someone’s unused PDA and press it into service as a music device. They’ll thank you. The environment will thank you.

US$29.95, but unlike Apple’s iTunes store, you can download a demo version. (Imagine that.)

All of this is on paper (erm, pixels); no promises, as I haven’t used it yet. I have to brush off my Dell PDA and give this a try. I know there’s a charger here somewhere…

MeTeoR @ 4pockets.com [Demo download and purchase links, detailed features]

Despite my complaints, you will find some useful music apps in the iTunes App Store – you can at least get some fine tuners. (Andy Ihnatko was excited on Twitter that one of them helps him tune his ukulele, thanks to four string support!) We do expect more hefty music tools in the coming months, and via the jailbroken platform.

But some of the real stars on the iPhone – or whatever your favorite smart mobile device may be – have to do with simply storing ideas and keeping your life together. That means one of the best downloads so far for the iPhone is Evernote. As Graham English writes in comments on CDM:

The app I’m most excited about for music is Evernote. You can record voice notes, text notes, and it even recognizes the text in iPhone pictures. So next time you write a killer hook on a bar napkin, snap a picture and sync it. Cool.

I’m a huge user of Evernote on my desktops and, via its web browser, on my Blackberry. The iPhone app looks especially great, though; I’m jealous.

Evernote for iPhone

My friend Francis Preve has written a whole set of useful tips for DJs that apply to any gigging musician / artist (which he’s been refining since the first iPod, in fact):

Top 10 iPhone tricks for DJs [Beatportal]

Some highlights:

• Keeping email templates for gig announcements on your device so you can send them quickly. (Recognize this scenario? “Hey, what’s new?” “I’m playing Friday.” “Oh, really?”)
• Mapping: Some providers require you to enable mapping capabilities on your device. Do it. Both the “real” GPS (via a dedicated radio) and the assisted GPS can be lifesavers if you travel at all. (The iPhone 2.0 update adds this feature, in the assisted form.)
• Rescue tracks: The iPhone is a capable music player, so it can, um, save you when your laptop dies or someone steals your hard drive. It even has video out capability, for you Create Digital Motion readers.

And the fact is, you can easily apply these ideas to whatever phone / smart device is your favorite. These could also put you over the top as far as cameras with phones – not because you’ll necessarily be taking attractive photos (dedicated cameras are a must for that) but because they can aid visual memory. (Airport parking spot? Check!)

I especially like Fran’s idea of logging creative time. Invoicing aside, I find that it’s so often a fight to get time to yourself that I really like the idea of keeping track of that time, whether it’s in the studio or just sitting in the park thinking about a new song. It could help give you some positive reinforcement for setting aside some working time or even badly-needed quiet time.

Going back to my first Palm (the PalmPilot Professional, no less), I’ve always found even simple mobile devices can help reduce stress, particularly on the road. And that to me is priceless.

Other ideas that boost your productivity, in terms of gigging, travel, and creativity? Let us know.

Previously:

iPod Touch/iPhone for Music Round-up (which, surprisingly, isn’t all that outdated by the App Store launch – we expect bigger announcements in the coming weeks)

Northwest Reef from Umcorps on Vimeo.

Aside from being toy-like mini-computers, could mobile devices take on a musical usefulness all their own?

At the Electronic Music Foundation’s 10th Anniversary Symposium in 2004, Morton Subotnik and fellow panelists imagined an iPod that, instead of playing canned music from your music library, would actually generate music for you on the spot. Believe it or not, commercial demand aside, that might soon be reality.

We saw Intermorphic’s fascinating generative music engine noatikl at the end of last year. It’s the “spritual successor” to the Koan generative system used by Brian Eno in 1996. Read up and see the videos here:

noatikl: New Generative Music Engine, So You Can Rock Out Like Eno

They’ve got various videos showing off what the results can be like, including the one at top, which combines noatikl and Apple’s Logic 8 synths. If you’re interested in learning more, Intermorphic has a page with some background on generative music with comments from pioneer Eno:

generative music @ Intermorphic

Enter iPhone, Mobile

Here’s where this all goes mobile. Wonderful mobile music site Palm Sounds notes that Mixtikl will allow on-the-go music production for a variety of platforms. You’ll be able to work on your Mac and Windows PC VST/AU host, but you’ll also be able to support:

• Windows Mobile 5, 6
• iPhone, iPod Touch
• Symbian Series 60 V2/3 smartphone
• Antix Game Player

The basic idea is a music tool that blends generative music tools and playback with access more traditional loops and patterns.