On the back page of yesterday's New York Times business section, SanDisk has a full-page ad for its new slotMusic memory card. The company announced the new music format on September 22.

The top of the ad, as seen in the above photo, says "the next big thing in music." For scale, I placed a penny next to the actual-size slotDisk image.

Here's a sample of the ad's copy:

For the first time since the CD, the major players in the music and retail industries have united to support a new physical format. slotMusic is a tiny plug-and-play card that brings high-fidelity, DRM-free music to miscroSD-enabled mobile phones, MP3 players, personal computers, entertainment systems and other devices consumers already own.

SanDisk goes on to claim that slotMusic is "another industry-changing innovation" from the company. It's true that all four majors are on board and slotMusic titles will be sold in both Wal-Mart and Best Buy stores. Whether or not slotMusic will change the music industry is a big question mark. It's obvious that much thought has been put into the coordination needed to launch the new product. Less is known about the thought put into how consumers will live with the product -- how it will be packaged, how many titles will be released on the format, how it will be carried, how it will not be lost between car seat cushions (the slotMusic card is smaller than a postage stamp).

At the very least, and judging from the expense put into this single newspaper ad, we know SanDisk is putting its considerable weight behind slotMusic.