• SlotMusic cards will be SanDisk MicroSD cards preloaded with music, album art and other extras.
• Each card will be packaged with a USB sleeve, making plug-in to any computer theoretically no problem.
• The details in the announcement seem intentionally vague on whether the disk will be a one-on-one alternative to CD albums, or whether record labels will create bundles that take advantage of the cards' 1 GB capacity.
• MP3 will be the audio format, with rates as high as 320 kbps rather than the grainier 128 kbps most commonly used to share MP3s. (The 128 kbps rate was chosen as the target for MP3 audio quality back in the early '90s, when ISDN lines were the future.)
• No DRM! Seriously, none.
• The Big Four music labels — EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner — have signed up.
• So far, no details on the initial catalogue of music. "Check back soon for announcements" says the artists page at SlotMusic.org.
• It's gotta be annoying to the record execs involved that Slotmusic.com is owned by a defunct band called S.L.O.T.

Wrong. Roxio, a CD-burning software company, snapped up the Napster name and the technical assets of Shawn Fanning's file-sharing startup on the cheap. But sometimes you get what you pay for. Roxio shed its software business and took the Napster name, but never figured out how to profit from it. In the last year, it lost $16.5 million.

And yet Napster managed to live on. If anyone can lay it in the ground once and for all, we're betting it's Best Buy. The retailer has stumbled from one unsuccessful online-music strategy to another, most recently through a partnership with RealNetworks' also-ran music site, Rhapsody. Why doesn't Best Buy just ask Steve Jobs for more iPods to sell? That seems easier.

That's the second time I've heard that phrase from BitTorrent tipsters, so I'm guessing it's already widely used, if poorly understood, within the company. Anyone care to explain what an "Internet peace corps" is — and how this plan will pay back BitTorrent's investors, who have invested at least $24 million in the company? Our tipster also says Walker's trying to raise a third round of financing amidst this uproar. Here's his detailed recounting of BitTorrent's woes:

Owen-

I read your posts on BitTorrent and here is my take (you can guess as to whether I'm an insider or not).

I feel it boils down to two young and inexperienced founders, one a wanna-be Internet celebrity in Ashwin Navin, the other a reluctant Internet celebrity in Bram Cohen, wielding too much power over the company. They executed a coup that doesn't bode well for the new CEO staying much longer. Sound familiar?

Torrent Entertainment Network

Ashwin's grand idea that new CEO Doug Walker put the kibosh on may very well end up being sold to Best Buy, but nowhere near $15M (unless BitTorrent is incredibly lucky or Best Buy foolish). Best Buy's idea is to OEM a white box set-top TV box, put the Best Buy logo on it and bundle it with BitTorrent to download the content. This is what Ashwin dreamed of...sort of to do for movies what iTunes did for music; a seamless end to end solution for renting and buying movies online. Its just been poorly executed and with Apple TV nearing perfection, TEN will be an albatross with whoever ends up with it. BitTorrent is on the hook for licensing deals (that Ashwin's brother Alvir put together) that were not favorable to the company at all, especially since the store has not done well with consumers. Apple has more leverage here too. You've probably already heard the nightmares TEN has had with Windows DRM so I won't rehash it here.

SDK

Their SDK business was attractive to device manufacturers in part because of the ability to leverage the TEN. With TEN going away or at least changing dramatically, device manufacturers are not as excited to partner with BitTorrent. The FCC ruling that will likely force ISPs to cap bandwidth and charge for overage makes it that much worse. Why would Buffalo, D-Link, Netgear, etc want to bundle and pay royalties for the BitTorrent client on their device when their own consumers may end up having to pay more to their ISP for the behavior of that client passively sharing files? Talk about a tech support nightmare.

DNA

Probably the brightest part of their business, they had the model wrong. They were charging per GB to match CDN pricing schemes. What they should have done is given DNA away for free from the start and charge for the help and support people will end up needing (like what Red Hat did for Linux). Of course, BitTorrent had absolutely no post-sales support put together so even when the now laid-off sales and marketing team started to get traction in the market, supporting those customers became a headache. Not to mention that Eric Klinker and the engineering team had no desire to support what product marketing said customers were asking for. Mac client? Good luck...the engineer working on that left in May and they have no plans to pursue that project. Live streaming? Bram tried to figure this one out but gave up after becoming increasingly frustrated over not figuring out a way to make it work easily. Bundle the DNA client into the next release of uTorrent in order to propagate it? Too much of a sacred cow. They feel the uTorrent users would leave in droves if they were to do such a horrible thing as attempt to commercialize uTorrent. Seems like the solution here was to just let everyone in sales and marketing go to make the people causing these issues go away. At least they got to keep their laptops as a consolation gift.

So now Doug Walker is left trying to cobble together a C round of funding as they desperately cut expenses. They are not renewing the lease on Floor 9 of 201 Mission St in December (rumor is Google is interested in the space, as well as several other floors in 201 Mission). 40 people in an office with room for 150 never does well for morale. Word is they are going to go back into stealth mode, turning into an "internet Peace Corps"...whatever that means. To me it sounds like they are turning into a non-profit which can't be attractive to for-profit minded investors. I'd hate to be one of their VCs right now.

Tonight the Geek Squad is going to hold a moment of silence at 8:01 pm to remember the venerable Arthur C. Clarke (in army time, that's 20:01). Memo's regarding Mr. Clarke's passing have been posted at Geek Squad precincts around the nation...See below for the memo the Agents created...best...CK

ARTHUR C. CLARKE
1917 - 2008

Yesterday, the worlds of science and science fiction lost one of their true visionaries, the inestimable Arthur C. Clarke, author of seminal works like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. Through the writings of Mr. Clarke, all these worlds are yours.

It isn't easy to overstate Mr. Clarke's contribution to increasing the public's fascination with science and technology. In fact, Mr. Clarke's imaginative fiction, profoundly insightful futurist thinking and boundless optimism played no small part in shaping the formation of our company, Geek Squad.

Out of the deepest respect for Mr. Clarke, Geek Squad personnel will be observing a moment of silence this evening at 20:01 military time. Many thanks for your understanding. The sky is filled with one more star tonight.

Chris Kooluris
Ketchum
1285 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10019

10. Tony Kornheiser: But only a bit, because god, what media personality hasn't tried to get a rise out of bloggers? Even Garry Trudeau did it.

9. Lee Siegel: The New Republic editor who coined the term "blogofascism" was fired for "blogodouchism" when he defended himself on his own blog using a fake commenter account. Slamming (liberal) bloggers was bad enough. But he got caught pumping himself up with messages like "Siegel is brave, brilliant, and wittier than [Jon] Stewart will ever be. Take that, you bunch of immature, abusive sheep." Yes, he called himself better than Jon Stewart in every way. With a fake name. On his blog. His defense: "I am too childlike to be immature."

8. Andrew Keen: His book, The Cult of the Amateur, is subtitled "How the Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy." Subtle! Keen argues that citizen-generated media is unadulterated crap and nothing good will ever shine on the Internet. If he toned it down, Keen would have an interesting viewpoint. But then he wouldn't have sold any copies.


7. Steve Jobs: Over a year after an apparent truce with rumor blogs, Apple shut down Think Secret, and the death of free speech for industry blogs caused a great outcry for about an hour before Fake Steve Jobs pretended Apple shut him down and probably sold an entire new book off that story.


6. Anna Wintour: Not a hater so much as a disdainer. But being disdained by the Vogue empress-in-chief is better than being ignored, and all she really did was avoid calling herself a blogger.


5. Microsoft: Apple was nothing; at least they're nice to the bloggers who just use their stuff. But after Microsoft (CEO Steve Ballmer pictured here) gave free laptops to bloggers and angry Internet users accused them of bribery, the company asked for the machines back. The recipients were not happy, but most gave them away to charity instead. I can imagine Microsoft giving a weak little "Tada!" like GOB from Arrested Development.


4. Dan Rather: The former news host treated bloggers rather well, considering it was conservative bloggers who started discrediting his reports on George Bush's sketchy military service records. Rather still insists that the records, which were also disputed by the Post and Times, have still not been proven false. Still, he lost his job shortly after the controversy.


3. Best Buy: It's kind of the friend of bloggers, because the incompetent retail chain makes so many great stories for angry consumer bloggers. Gawker Media's Consumerist has explained how Best Buy is basically a giant box of Fuck You. The founder of Best Buy's Geek Squad fix-it service, asked to defend himself, instead picked on Consumerist for running stories before he responded. Dude! The complaint gets one post, then your response gets another. WE CALL THAT BLOGGING.


2. George Bush: Ha! Ha! "Rumors on the Internets" joke! But honestly, when the House of Representatives didn't give the White House more spying power, Bush's press secretary blamed them for believing "the fantasies of left-wing bloggers." Miserable failure.


1. Cory Doctorow: Critics call bloggers self-centered, egomaniacal, and shrill. All of which kind of describes Cory Doctorow! The Boing Boing co-founder, one of four writers on one of the Internet's most influential blogs, writes plenty of cool stuff. But because he whines about consumer rights and copyright fairness as if they're equivalent to global warming and world poverty, and because he sometimes rips on annoying people in his daily life on his million-viewer blog without asking their side of the story, he's (maybe a bit unfairly) pegged as the biggest crank among bloggers. Oh bloggers, you fools, your enemy was yourself all the time! Now let me explain to you my evil plan and put you in a death machine that doesn't work.

Photos licensed from Getty Images, except: Siegel from NYT, Keen from Keen, Doctorow from Scott Beale

Or perhaps consumers should inform themselves about how they're spending their money. Best Buy is in the business of making money, not providing higher education to those who barely made it through grammar school. They aren't required to tell you that Amazon.com will sell you the exact same TV for cheaper, either. Would you expect a clerk making $9 an hour to give you detailed information about your legal rights? Would you expect them to even understand the subject? Why doesn't MassPIRG just raise money to mail free set-top boxes to everyone in the state? That seems easier. (Photo by AP/Ng Han Guan)

On July 11, they told her it would be ready in days. On July 25 they told her it'd been sent to Louisville for repairs. On August 7, Campbell left a message for the store manager. On August 9, a Best Buy employee finally confessed: They'd lost Campbell's laptop. Now Campbell wants $54 million. Or at least, Campbell confesses, the media attention such a huge number will bring to Best Buy. (Photo by Manuel W.)

Update: A Best Buy employee sheds light on why this is happening:

Our tipster says that the site is used to give employees "a place where they can order large purchases that are shipped to home and the sale shows up on the store's sales report." It's also used to honor in store only prices, and will let them ship stuff to customers without a raincheck.

However, the stores aren't obligated to match the online prices, because different regions have different pricing structures, whereas their website has one price for everyone. The only time they have to honor prices, he claims, is if it's in the weekly circular ad.

Thanks tipster!