Los Angeles - Universal Music Group has partnered with fitness personality Jake Steinfeld ("Body by Jake") to launch what it says is the first "digital fitness music label." The multi-year agreement with Universal Music Enterprises will tap Universal's catalog and sales and marketing units, along with "music and fitness professionals," to create workout mixes that can be purchased on the nascent slotMusic card format or downloaded as digital files.

Milpitas, Calif. - SanDisk (NASD: SNDK) on Wednesday introduced its $20 Sansa slotMusic Player, a portable MP3 player that plays music either pre-recorded onto slotMusic card albums or self-loaded onto microSD cards. Meanwhile, the first slotMusic card albums from more than 40 artists began shipping to Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. The $14.99 cards include new releases from Coldplay, Rihanna and Leona Lewis, and catalog titles from acts like Elvis. SanDisk also said it will also sell artist-branded slotMusic Players, which come pre-loaded with an album by artists like ABBA or Robin Thicke, for $34.99.

Los Angeles - The four major record labels, along with leading U.S. retailers and memory card maker SanDisk on Monday introduced a new music format, where microSD cards will come pre-loaded with DRM-free MP3 albums from top artists. The "slotMusic" cards will be playable in mobile phones and MP3 players that support microSD cards -- which excludes Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPod -- as well as on any computer with a USB port and a number of in-car systems.