Betty, a prepaid card seems to me to be the ideal solution. There is something similar available to those of us who pay tolls on New York expressways--the EZ-Pass system. This system uses a transponder mounted on the front windshield. A device at the entry and exit booth reads the transponder and automatically charges the appropriate amount to the user's account, which must be maintained with a minimum of $15 on deposit. Periodic invoices are sent to the users, with charges automatically deducted from a credit card account or paid directly by the user via check.
The SDMC works similar to the transponder in that it contains the necessary information to identify the user account. A music selection may be priced at about $0.30, meaning that you could get some 20 selections (roughly the same amount of short tunes as are on a CD) for $6.00, or about one-third the price of a CD. This would give a reasonable profit to the music publisher because there would be no need to manufacture a plastic disk, package it in some suitable container, ship it to a wholesaler, who in turn would ship it to a retailer, who in turn would take an additional profit when selling it to the consumer.
Incidentally, I just saw the new Panasonic digital camera, shipped with a 32 mb SDMC and a direct USB connection to a computer, allowing the user to email photos directly or download from the SDMC and print out on a local printer. The camera has 3.1 mpixel resolution and lists for about $900. Perhaps it is an indication of where the future is for flash cards.
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