Just what we all need: another media format

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Keane

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Keane's latest single Nothing in My Way (released on 30th October) is going to be released in a "new" format - memory card.

The device will be sold exclusively through HMV stores, and will plug directly into your PC/ Mac (which presumably means it'll be a USB device). As well as buying the device pre-loaded with a particular song, you will also be able to add other songs to it.

Is this progress, or is it a way for HMV to try and gain a bit of the "download"/ MP3 market through selling the devices + tracks?

It seems to me that people that buy songs for MP3 players do so predominantly via iTunes and the like, so why would they use this (more expensive) method - which would still involve them transferring the song to their MP3 player, which in the age of "digital copy protection" (DRM) is not always as easy as you would expect?

It's not the first time this has been attempted, though: Robbie Williams' Greatest Hits was released on a memory card 2 years back (as well as other formats) and flopped.

The Keane track is also available on more traditional formats, of course.

The great irony of this, is that you can buy the device online, pre-loaded with Nothing in my Way. If anyone buys one that way, I'll.... oh I don't know, probably laugh until I urinate or something.

Daniel O'Connell