As you might have heard, SanDisk is offering players with a feature that’s a little unusual, a microSD card slot. The slot is a requirement to work with the new music format introduced last month called slotMusic.

The slotMusic format is basically just digital tracks written on a microSD card. SanDisk’s new Sansa player is made especially for the format and is pretty bare bones with no internal memory, no LCD, and no rechargeable battery. It operates on a single AAA battery. It plays slotmusic cards. Period. The device retails for $19.99. You can also get a customized player with an artist skin and a slotMusic card for $34.99. The skins on the player can be swapped if you like. Both models will be available in 2009. But how did we like it? Click through to find out.

Apple may run away with the MP3 player market with its iPod, but there are other makers who enjoy some success in the marketplace and SanDisk is one of them. SanDisk is offering players with a feature that you are not likely to see from Apple — a microSD card slot.

This slot is naturally a requirement to work with the new music format introduced last month called slotMusic. The slotMusic format is nothing more than digital tracks installed on a microSD card. SanDisk has announced a new Sansa player specifically for the format called the Sansa slotMusic Player. The device offers no internal memory, no LCD, and no rechargeable battery.

The music industry is not happy that consumers have abandoned physical media for their music in droves. Profits on physical media are much higher than profit from digital tracks and the move to digital tracks has greatly impacted the bottom line for music publishers around the world.

To try to recapture some of the lost profitability several of the major music publishers are backing a new physical medium for music called slotMusic. The physical format is nothing more than digital tracks stored on a microSD card with 1GB of storage space.