A new physical music format has been announced called slotMusic. The new format will be available soon and will come with tracks pre-loaded on microSD cards that can be slipped into portable devices to play high-quality DRM-free music.

Music publishers supporting the format will include EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner. The slotMusic cards will be available at Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. The cards will be packaged with a small USB sleeve to allow playback on any PC. Pricing and artists for the format are unknown at this time.

"slotMusic offers consumers an immediate, tangible, and high quality alternative to CDs and digital delivery," said Danielle Levitas, vice president, Consumer, Broadband & New Media, IDC. "This year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by nearly an order of magnitude - and this trend is accelerating."

Via slotMusic