Wal-Mart to Launch Online Music Store

Dteyn writes "I heard on the radio today that Wal-Mart will soon be opening up an online music store to compete with the likes of Apple's iTunes and Napster. According to the radio newsguy, it's expected to be officially announced as early as next week. Looks like this 'digital music' thing is starting to catch on with the bigwigs. Finally."

Comments

Censored.

[Evanrude]

I wonder if all the songs will be censored like the CDs in the stores?

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[Shakrai]

I wonder if all the songs will be censored like the CDs in the stores?

They don't censor stuff, they just refuse to carry it. Works fine for me, because I can get it cheaper at my local used music store, without dealing with the parking situation at Wally-World, and to boot, I'm supporting a local business.

I'll never forget the time they attempted to card me for buying a PG-13 movie. I've bought liquor at Wally-World without getting carded before! Guess we have our priorities for what we gotta protect the kiddies from :)

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[GreyWolf3000]

Were you underage at the time? That's a really amusing story.

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[Captain Splendid]

They do carry censored versions, just have a look at any recent rap releases on AMG, most will have a 'clean' version listed.

Then again, maybe that's K-Mart. I always get the two confused.

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[Graabein]

> What if time didn't really flow forward at all?....

[ker-snip]

Robby Todino, is that you?

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[Shakrai]

Were you underage at the time? That's a really amusing story.

Actually I was 22 at the time I tried to buy the movie and dressed in my work clothes (suit & tie) and I still got carded. Yet I've made beer runs to Wally-World (knew it was 24 hours for a reason) in my "rag" clothes and not gotten carded. Something is wrong with that picture....

Personally the paranoid part of me thinks they just wanted the excuse to key my license number into their database. Doesn't explain why I've gotten away with buying booze there and not being carded thou.

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[ForestGrump]

PG-13 movies aren't checked for. Only R movies are restricted.
oh your referring to the booze.
never mind

-Grump.

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[Anonymous Coward]

"Wafe me" is what Walmart replaced "Rape me" with on the track listing for Nirvana's "In Utero" album. But hey, if you guys say it's off topic...

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[Anonymous Coward]

actually it was "Waif me" g.

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[GreyWolf3000]

Perhaps they just want to get you used to whipping that plastic out for a wider variety of reasons.

Now they can get particulars from all sorts of kids. Yum.

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[Walpurgiss]

I was thinking the same thing. Two words come to mind: "Waif Me" I don't even like Nirvana, but seeing that on their In Utero CD instead of "Rape Me" really just pissed me off and I never shop there anymore Lol.

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[Shakrai]

PG-13 movies aren't checked for. Only R movies are restricted.

Ah, my mistake. Just checked -- it was A Few Good Men (rated R). They had it in the bargain bin for like $5.95 and I grabbed it.

I refused on principal to buy it after they demanded ID. They just wanted the excuse to key my info into their friggen database. Probably just as well -- didn't need the impulse purchase anyway.

I can likewise piss them off by refusing to give them my phone number and paying with checks. They don't have the right to refuse (at least in my state), but I usually have to get to a manager before they accept that. I also created a scene once when they demanded my ID when I was paying with a company check. Told them it was none of their business and they had the choice of putting all of the stock away (it was already bagged at this point) or cashing me out. The manager cashed me out. I win :)

Doesn't change the fact that they carded me for an R rated movie, and not when I've bought booze. Admittedly I've only bought booze two or three times at Wally World, but I was never once carded for it.

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[ForestGrump]

uh, im 20.
scratch that...no no, by this age, I have OLDER friends.
HI! I'm 12.
which wally-world is this?
Thanks!

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

They do carry censored versions, just have a look at any recent rap releases on AMG, most will have a 'clean' version listed.

Yes, they do. So does iTMS. But iTMS also carries the uncensored versions. I haven't seen any examples of them only having a censored version (but then, I don't usually go hunting for explicit rap music, so I could stand corrected).

The problem with Wally-World isn't carrying the censored CDs. The problem is refusing to carry the uncensored ones for those of us who are of age and desire to possess them. Sorry Wally-World you aren't my Mommy and Daddy. And you aren't my kids Mommy and Daddy. I can do a well enough job of supervising what my kids buy without your help....

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[Shakrai]

uh, im 20.
scratch that...no no, by this age, I have OLDER
friends.
HI! I'm 12.
which wally-world is this?
Thanks!

Hahahaha nice. It's Vestal, New York. Just make sure you go late at night (preferably right before the liquor sales end at 1am) and wear the worst possible outfit that you own. Just don't let them catch you peeking at any explicit rap CDs or R-rated movies on the closed circuit TV... or the gig will be up ;)

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[Anonymous Coward]

I got asked for ID when trying to buy some superglue. I asked why, and the clerk told me that some people sniff it -- I replied "I didn't know that, thanks for telling me, I'll be sure to go home and try it."

She just stared and forgot to check my ID. (I was 20, but it's really the principle that count).

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[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably just that they have a big organization, and different people handle the same situation differently. One person cards everyone for everything, another person doesn't, etc.

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[Shakrai]

I got asked for ID when trying to buy some superglue. I asked why, and the clerk told me that some people sniff it -- I replied "I didn't know that, thanks for telling me, I'll be sure to go home and try it."

Hahaha, yeah, a long time ago my old roommate got carded at K-Mart buying spray paint (she was 26 at the time). She asked "Oh, is that because of vandalism?" The clerk replied, "No, it's because people sniff it."

Ah, at least they have noble intentions ;) Can't wait until they card us buying shampoo because some people might ignore the "not for internal use" warning on the label!

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[ruiner13]

"Actually I was 22 at the time I tried to buy the movie and dressed in my work clothes (suit & tie) and I still got carded. Yet I've made beer runs to Wally-World (knew it was 24 hours for a reason) in my "rag" clothes and not gotten carded. Something is wrong with that picture....

Personally the paranoid part of me thinks they just wanted the excuse to key my license number into their database. Doesn't explain why I've gotten away with buying booze there and not being carded thou."

That doesn't surprise me. I got carded at Wal-Mart for buying paint (not industrial size, little jars so I could paint a plastic table) when I was 22. PAINT! I've also been carded there for buying white-out. That is why I'll never go back to Wal-Mart. Apparently, wal-mart shoppers have a problem with inhaling said products and killing brain cells. They'll card you for buying office supplies, or home improvement supplies, but here! Have a gun! Don't listen to music with nasty words though, it might make you want to use that gun in a bad way. Oh, and don't look at magazine covers while you're in line, that's immoral. The sooner that place goes away the better off this country is as far as our rights and freedoms go.

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[Trolling 4 dollas]

Walmart is the corporate whore of the US and yet they pretend to be puritans. It's totally nuts. They even make their employees dance and sing songs before opening in some weird rituals.

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[Anonymous Coward]

The Wal*Mart store will initially have the ability to serve up to 200,000 tracks (we have them on hand right now). Yes, they can be censored if Wal*Mart makes us edit them.

Ever wonder what happened to Liquid Audio?

Re:Censored.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Wal*Mart does carry censored music. Many CD's you find in Wal*Mart have been edited by the record label at Wal*Mart's request.

If they don't reply favorably to the request, then we stop carrying them.

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[ksheff]

they are proud of their cheer. they aren't the only ones.

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[ForestGrump]

thanks.
my uncle manages the store there. I'll give him a call.
j/k

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[Anonymous Coward]

Are the CDs labeled that they have been edited?

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[ForestGrump]

from his story, its more like the person at the "normal" checkout cards for everything, while the person at the liqour conter doesn't card at all....
looks like the person who isn't carding should do it more often.

Re:Censored.

[nemesisj]

You're just wrong.

Any CD you buy at Walmart by a band that normally has explicit lyrics will be a special "censored" version that has the bad words XX-d out in the lyric sheet, the CD packaging, and hissed out of the song.

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[Belgand]

The question is why one would buy cds there anyway. I mean, the selection and prices are both terrible. I live in a town without an actual music store or Best Buy or much else really. There's an overpriced Musicland or Sam Goody or whatever at the mall, the always disturbing Hastings, and a used cd place... the independent music store closed 3 years ago (oddly enough this a college town). With such complete lack of choice I still wouldn't ever consider Wal-Mart. I just buy online (none of this digital crap for me, I want a nice usable, highly physical cd) and try to avoid getting screwed by shipping.

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[EinarH]

Don't listen to music with nasty wordsthough,[..]

Oops, you linked to an article written by Jon Katz. Watch out for the flames. This could get ugly. Watch your back.

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[tbone1]

Why would anyone shop there in the first place? I have yet to find anything of quality in a WalMart. The only reason I go to one is that it is the only convenient place near work to pick up cold medicine (which probably tells you how much I patronize them).

In truth, I try to avoid the mass-retailers like WalMart, Meijer, KMart, Target, etc. The places are just so depressing. It's not the stores or their customers per se; the employees are generally friendly and helpful, and if you are looking for something without much concern for quality, it's the place for you. However, it's the customers that bother me. I come from "the people", and "the people" suck.

In my mind, the stereotypical patron of these stores is some woman trailing five feral, snot-nosed kids, probably each with a different father. She is constantly yelling at Donnie, Bonnie, Connie, Ronnie, and Lonnie to "Shuuut uuuup" or she'll threaten them with never bringing them to this place again. "And where the hell's Johnny?!?!" These are also the kids who won't be quiet, so I often have to threaten to teach them certain words that will force Mom to quiet them. Around here, the Targets have a lower percentage of these patrons, so I prefer going there if I have to, in spite of the PitA of its location.

You know, Jeff Foxworthy was right: you don't need the Southern accent to be a redneck. What's more, you don't even need to be white.

Re:Censored.

[diersing]

The RFID overlords were not interested in tracking your alcohol induced movements. The MPAA on the other hand wanted to know exactly where you were going so they may track your internet usage... don't put the movie in your PC, it activates the recovery team!!! and you'll be wisked away immediatly.

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[MrBlint]

I wish time could flow backwards so that I could get back the time I wasted by reading that!

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[jrsimmons]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but no, they do not care about your driver's license number.

What makes you think that one wage employee behaving differently from another must be a corporate wide conspiracy to track you via your DL #? (To even do so would be a huge pain, because in the states' infinite wisdom, the magnetic stripe on the back doesn't keep all the same data, much less all of it in the same format or place, between states.)

You simply met one lazy individual who didn't care whether or not they got fired for selling liquor to someone underage and another anal individual who followed the letter of the law, even if that was not necessarily the intent of the law.

I forget where the saying comes from, but there's one that essentially goes, "When you remove all of the false assumptions, the simplest solution is the most likely solution". Now which is simpler, a couple of unrelated (and low paid) employees acting in contradictory fashion, or a conspiracy throughout the largest retail store in the world to force you to hand over your identity through scrupulous means?

Besides....If you've ever used credit/debit/check, it's much easier to track you down that way...

Re:Censored.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you, you sack of shit. God what a pathetic wanker you must be. Do you really think it makes you superior to look down your nose at other people?

I suppose you only associate yourself with upscale, overpriced retailing establishments.

Again, fuck you.

Fuckstain

Re:Censored.

[rakanishu]

They don't censor stuff, they just refuse to carry it.

Then the artists and/or record companies create "clean"(whitewashed) versions of their music so that they don't lose out on Wallyworld's unfortunate massive marketshare.

Generica Generica

Re:Censored.

[BenEnglishAtHome]

knew it was 24 hours for a reason

I love the 24-hour Walmarts because I do my weekly marketing at about 4AM every Saturday. (That's the time I get up during the week, so I see no need to change my hours on the weekend.) The great thing about shopping at that time is the fact that all the strippers just got off work. I've seen women in there that would have given ole Sam a heart attack.

:-)

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[the_consumer]

What's disturbing about Hastings? I used to live in Santa Fe, I thought it was a good place to grab hard to find used stuff, and their new selection wasn't half bad.

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[nat5an]

They only have the 'Clean' version of the latest Outkast album. Which also has the #1 selling song on iTMS right now.

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[AbbyNormal]

Um. Not entirely true. Go to Walmart. Search for "Cypress".

Notice the funny little "Edited" comments next to the Cypress Hill cd tittles? That means its censored.

I have always bought my music at Best Buy, since discovering this little "feature". Last weekend, was the last weekend of purchasing ANYTHING at Best Buy, after I was asked for my telephone number. That is a story for another time.

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

What makes you think that one wage employee behaving differently from another must be a corporate wide conspiracy to track you via your DL #? (To even do so would be a huge pain, because in the states' infinite wisdom, the magnetic stripe on the back doesn't keep all the same data, much less all of it in the same format or place, between states.)

Actually, I don't think they (Wally World) even use the mag stripe. The times that they've carded me for paying with checks (even though my friggen checks have my DL # printed on them -- grrrr) they always manually keyed in my license number. I can't tell if they would do this with liquor (or R-rated movies) or not, because I've never gotten carded for them.

Fact remains, I can see why they would do it (to prove that they carded you) but to think that information isn't also going into a big fat sales database somewhere is naive.

Personally, I'd prefer that they card people the way the convenience stores in my state (New York) do. They flash the drivers license at the lotto machine -- the lotto machine prints (on a standard lottery receipt, incidentally) a piece of paper with age in Years and Months on it... i.e: "22 years and 11 months". (I dunno if the lotto machine reads it off the encrypted barcode on our licenses or contacts DMV's database -- either way it's pretty cool) They they can staple said piece of paper to the receipt for the liquor sale, proving that they carded you. Yet the receipt itself bears no personally identifiable information. The more paranoid among us would wonder if the lotto machine itself keeps track, but at least that's the State doing it (who has an interest in regulating underage liquor sales) and not some faceless corporation who wants to send me sales advertisements.

The only hitch here would be dealing with out-of-state licenses -- that would actually make it back to a judgement call of whether or not the ID is ligit. But if you hand them a NYS license, and they don't know you, expect it to be flashed at the lotto machine....

You simply met one lazy individual who didn't care whether or not they got fired for selling liquor to someone underage and another anal individual who followed the letter of the law, even if that was not necessarily the intent of the law

Letter of the law? Letter of Wally-World internal regulations perhaps, but not letter of the law. There is no law in my state that says you need to prove your age to buy an R-rated movie. That said, you are probably right (about the lazy vs anal employee), but it doesn't make it any less amusing :)

Re:Censored.

[John3]

They don't censor stuff, they just refuse to carry it. Works fine for me, because I can get it cheaper at my local used music store, without dealing with the parking situation at Wally-World, and to boot, I'm supporting a local business.

Bravo to supporting the local business (seriously), but don't pooh-pooh Wal*Mart's selective music racks. Wal*Mart is the largest music retailer in the world, and if a label knows in advance that a CD won't get sold at Wal*Mart then it reduces the likeliehood of the CD being released at all. Sure there are independent labels and local shops, but there are fewer and fewer of those around. The local CD shop I frequented recently went out of business after nearly 20 years selling CD's. When he started he was the only game in town...nobody was carrying CD's. When he folded he was being squeezed on all sides...Wal*Mart, Borders, Tower, Amazon.com, you name it.
So support your local shop AND protest Wal*Mart's CD selection policy. Economic censorship is often more dangerous than government censorship.

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[jrsimmons]

No, really, they don't have a database of DL #'s. At least not one specifically for that and certainly not anything used for address data mining. It could be stored with the transaction data, I'm not sure about that. Not naivity, I actually know this. They don't read the mag strip for the reason I specified -- No way to get the same data across different states.

They don't use the machines you mention to verify age from DL's for the same reason. The same machine may not work in all states, and then you have another piece of equipment to maintain on every front end register. Besides, those things are expensive and it would slow down the transaction process.

And by "law", I meant "rules". Just a figure of speech...

Re:Censored.

[ruiner13]

He might be an all-around troll, but he makes some valid points in the article I linked.

Re:Censored.

[HungWeiLo]

Many have already pointed out that they sometimes only carry "clean" versions of certain CDs. They also do a similar thing to DVDs - sometimes you will only find fullscreen pan & scan versions of a DVD, and you'll have to go elsewhere to find the widescreen version.

Re:Censored.

[blanks]

Your right, but when your record label tells you that you can't say "insert lyrics here" because Wal-Mart will not carry it, what is going to happen?

Wal-Mart does not censor artists; artists have to censor them selves to get their music into Wal-Mart.

Re:Censored.

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reason I go to one is that it is the only convenient place near work to pick up cold medicine (which probably tells you how much I patronize them).

You're damn right; it tells me a lot. A little snot-nose like you must drink that shit like water.

Re:Censored.

[Dr. Smeegee]

Yup. Cheap shampoo and "Cream Rinse" contain stearyl alcohol, and desperate alkys will *definitely* drink it. An old GF of mine was a social worker in Madison, WI for 10 years. She told me of the cream rinse trick, as well as sucking the alcohol from medical waste (think cotton balls).

Bleah.

Re:Censored.

[kabocox]

There isn't much co-branded with Beer, there is alot of extras that they could sell you that have relationships to movies. Think actionfigures, lunch boxes, shirts, underwear, & cereal boxes. Who cares if you aren't 12 any more. You'll still get the targetted ads.

Re:Censored.

[Aqua OS X]

Actually, they carry censored CDs, don't tell their customers, and refuse to take back opened CDs. A lot of people, including me, consider that censorship.

If you buy an album, and it turns out of have weird blank spaces in it, you're usually stuck with it... Unless you chose to make a -big- stink.

Re:Censored.

[dubiousmike]

I wonder what happens when a behemoth like Walmart, who crushes everyone with their brick and mortar stores, goes up against Apple and Dell.

As far as I am concerned, lets get prices lower, and more competition can do nothing but improve the cost/service.

Re:Censored.

[Anonymous Coward]

...Economic censorship is often more dangerous than government censorship.

Tell that to anyone who spent time in a gulag.

Re:Censored.

[goodhell]

You think that's bad to get carded for a PG-13 movie???

I got carded for buying a folding shovel!!! What the f!@# am I going to do that could be so bad that I need to be over 18 to buy a shovel??? They get a little out of hand.

Re:Censored.

[pmz]

They don't censor stuff, they just refuse to carry it.

So, instead of hard-core rap, they just carry country, where it's the same sex, adultery, alcohol, and prison but with a twang.

Re:Censored.

[EinarH]

I know, and I think that article was great; I even agrees with him. I was just refering to all the flaming that sometimes errupt around Katz as a controversial person here on Slashdot.

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[Captain Splendid]

The problem with Wally-World isn't carrying the censored CDs. The problem is refusing to carry the uncensored ones

I agree with that, but it scares me to think you've just glossed over the whole censorship thing, which is pretty bad bad in and of itself. The fact that this behaviour isn't more ridiculed, is what really scares me.

Re:Censored.

[bev_tech_rob]

I'm surprised they get away with not carding for booze, no matter how old you are. Here in their home state (Arkansas), they have to card you, because the State sends out shoppers checking to see if they card you. If they don't, then Wal-Mart can be fined by the Liquor board. But those fines are pocket change for those guys. Tried to get a tech job with them one time...wanted to pay me $7.50 an hour!! Almost laughed the recruiter off the phone, but politely said 'Thanks, but no thanks..'

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

I agree with that, but it scares me to think you've just glossed over the whole censorship thing, which is pretty bad bad in and of itself. The fact that this behaviour isn't more ridiculed, is what really scares me.

Oh, I wasn't defending them. Wally World does a lot of this right-wing stuff that annoys the hell out of me -- refusing to carry the morning after pill comes to mind. I'm sorry, but what if they are in a small community and they are the only place for somebody who was just raped/had an accident/whatever to go? I don't think they have the right to impose their morals on us -- all the more so since they are a publicly held company.

I don't think you can criticize the existence of the censored CDs though. The label has to make something available for the radio market and if they have to do that they might as well make it available for the general public, because (strange as it may seem to you or me) there are people out there who get offended by the word "fuck".

It is definitely a problem when a retailer as powerful as Wally World decides what they will and will not carry though. All the more so since they have the tendency of driving other businesses into the ground -- thus limiting other your options for getting something that they refuse to carry. When a company gets to be that large, it has a responsibility to ensure that consumer choice isn't limited (imho anyway).

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

as well as sucking the alcohol from medical waste (think cotton balls).

Wow that's pretty pathetic. Wouldn't that usually be methyl-alcohol though -- not grain alchol? They might get more then they bargined for....

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

Bravo to supporting the local business (seriously), but don't pooh-pooh Wal*Mart's selective music racks

Good point, I shouldn't gloss over it as ok just because I have the luxury of going somewhere else. I will continue to support my local music store and encourage all of my friends to do the same.

To hell with Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Coconuts, The Wall, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. In fact B&N can go to hell twice because they compete with my favorite music store and they drove my two favorite local bookstores out of business within 12 months of opening shop. Then the motherfuckers raised their prices.

Re:Censored.

[Shakrai]

I got carded for buying a folding shovel!!! What the f!@# am I going to do that could be so bad that I need to be over 18 to buy a shovel??? They get a little out of hand.

Homeland security spokesman: You could use it to shovel explosives, or take over an airliner, or bury a body, or hit somebody over the head with it....
Public: Yeah but what if the terrorists just show ID?
Homeland security spokesman: Err, asking those questions just helps the terrorists. Show some patriotism here.

I hope that wasn't out of line ;)

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[xmda]

> They don't censor stuff, they just
> refuse to carry it.

Are you kidding me? Isn't that censorship? One of the world's largest stores has an incredible power over what the little man is buying.

Re:Censored.

[Lord_Dweomer]

"I love the 24-hour Walmarts because I do my weekly marketing at about 4AM every Saturday."

Wow, as someone in marketing/advertising, I have to say, you are QUITE dedicated to your job. 4AM? Wow. I can just imagine all the useful research you do at Walmart too! Most impressive.

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[Treacle Treatment]

I for one welcome our new WalMart overlords.

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[michrech]

I don't think you can criticize the existence of the censored CDs though. The label has to make something available for the radio market and if they have to do that they might as well make it available for the general public, because (strange as it may seem to you or me) there are people out there who get offended by the word "fuck".

Then, there are those of us who aren't offended by the word, but just don't feel the need to hear it as every other word of a sentence (or in this case, a "song", if you can call Rap "music" let alone a "song") along with the 'smacking up of bitches' and 'popping caps' in people's asses, etc.

Anyway...

Re:Censored.

[BenEnglishAtHome]

I'm not all that dedicated. I just get up at 4 because I need an hour to exercise and get something to eat, a half hour to get a shower and get on the road, and an hour drive time to the job. That gives me just a little cush since my start time is 7AM.

Did I mention that I routinely get to bed at nite at 7PM or so?

So I keep what to most people would appear to be sorta strange hours. But evidence of dedication? Hmmm. I wonder how I could sell that to my boss...?

as long as...

[Shakrai]

As long as it doesn't have that damn smiley face and excessively happy employees following me around, it should be a good thing ;)

In all seriousness though, looks like digital music is starting to catch on. I wonder how the Wally-World DRM model will work? There must be some sort of DRM on it (unfortunately). Think they can compete with ITMS?

Re:as long as...

[jared_hanson]

Have you ever met a happy employee at Wal-Mart? Seems to me most of them stand around or, when they are moving, it is just to avoid contact with actual customers. Mabey it is the boredom that comes with a dead-end job. Who know.

Anyway, my experience from the few times I've gone there. I usally avoid the place like the plague. It gives me headaches for some reason.

Re:as long as...

[Shakrai]

Have you ever met a happy employee at Wal-Mart? Seems to me most of them stand around or, when they are moving, it is just to avoid contact with actual customers.

Quite the opposite around here. It's usually been my experience that they are way to happy to be working where they are working. I think it's something in the water cooler.... we used to joke that Wally-World employement agreements were signed in blood ;)

I usally avoid the place like the plague. It gives me headaches for some reason.

My thoughts exactly. The parking situation sucks because it's always too busy, the prices aren't that great (I can either match them at my local stores -- the only stuff that's truly cheaper is the crap Made-in-Taiwan stuff), and I don't care for evil out-of-town corporations that slaughter my local business.

The only time I'll go to Wally-World is if I need something that I can only get from another evil out-of-town corporation (say a new release DVD that nobody else has). In this scenario they usually have competitive pricing -- new DVD goes for $25.95-$35.95 at Barnes & Noble... usually $15.95-$19.95 at Wally World.

Re:as long as...

[critter_hunter]

I hear they have a song or somesuch they sing every morning. They spell out Wal-Mart and they make YMCA-esque letter with their arms, something like that. Anyway, the point being that people who can withstand that crap for longer than a week are probably brain damaged, meaning only the lobotomized keep working there. Reverse natural selection.

Re:as long as...

[Shakrai]

I hear they have a song or somesuch they sing every morning. They spell out Wal-Mart and they make YMCA-esque letter with their arms, something like that. Anyway, the point being that people who can withstand that crap for longer than a week are probably brain damaged, meaning only the lobotomized keep working there. Reverse natural selection.

Too true. Of course it defeats evolution by providing a place where all of these lobotomized individuals can meet each other and mate. Perhaps we need some wild predatory animals at Wally World to thin the herd? ;)

Re:as long as...

[nexex]

headaches prob from the fluorescent lights going bzzzzzzz over head.

Re:as long as...

[Anonymous Coward]

Due to selling RIAA member stuff, they are probably forced to stupid DRM rules (that really aren't a restriction to any normal user - just a pain in the butt due to player software restrictions).

If you want good music- music made by musicians doing their thing - try emusic.com

10 bucks for 40 downloads or 15 for 65 downloads pr month. All songs available in mp3's (variable bitrate high quality!). And you can in fact download the songs you already downloaded as many times as you want (more than one machine anyone?).

And oh, the music is provided (largely or all?) by 900 independent record labels...

If you like music, don't like the RIAA, think DRM based stuff stinks, this might be your thing.

Re:as long as...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean there are really helpful people working there? Whenever I've been trying to locate something, I often think it's harder to find someone to help me than it would've been to just wander the store until I found the product myself.

But from reading these posts and from my own personal experiences, does anyone actually view going there as anything but something that must be merely tolerated and gotten over with as soon as possible? It's like walking into a cattle stampede, where the best you can hope for is to get whatever it is you need and get the hell out before some maniac with a loaded shopping cart and several screaming kids in tow mows you down. If I can manage it, I'd rather go to my local Fred's. True, the store here is old, small, and cluttered, they don't have much besides the basics, and they have limited hours, but it's within walking distance, it's quiet, and the people actually know me there, and, wonder of wonders, they'll help me if I need help. That's the way I remember Wal-Mart being when they started opening stores in the Southeast about 20 years ago, but they lost it somewhere along the way.

Re:as long as...

[citog]

Sounds interesting and I'm sure the quality of the music is good, however I'm not convinced that subscription based is the best. I prefer pay per song. But $10 isn't that bad ...

Re:as long as...

[Anonymous Coward]

There are people who like to go there. In small rural towns the high school kids will go hang out at the 24 hr walmart. It gets scary when people go out on dates and go there. There have been marrages at walmarts.

Re:as long as...

[zymurgy_cat]

meaning only the lobotomized keep working there.

This reminds of the great skit that MadTV had about Wal-Mart. If you've never seen it, the workers are all lobotomized and keep saying, "Hello new customer." One guy comes in looking for his mom whom he dropped off 3 days earlier. They encircle him ala Invasion of the Body Snatches. The next time you see him, he's got a nice little forehead scar and is repeating the new customer greeting.

Rolling back prices...

[ForestGrump]

So will we be seeing them for 49 cents a song then?

And I can print out a coupoun for a yellow happy face with the purchase of each song online-Walmart song right?

Is the little tune they play with each commerical free download? or do I have to pay for that too?

Can I buy online and pickup the songs on a cd in the store? That would be great!

-Grump.

Re:Rolling back prices...

[bsharitt]

I wonder if I'll be able to use my employee discount.

Re:Rolling back prices...

[DrStrangeLoop]

Is the little tune they play with each commerical free download? or do I have to pay for that too?

actually, the little tune will be pre,- as well as appendend to the actually purchased song. count yourself lucky if it is not added over the whole length of the song as a barely audible additional track, convincing your subconciousness to 'shop smart, shop wallmart' :/

Re:Rolling back prices...

[Anonymous Coward]

hey! who the fark modded it overrated?!?!!
i was bathing in my own glory!

Re:Rolling back prices...

[big_gibbon]

Gak . . . I knew Asda (UK supermarket) had been bought out by Walmart, but I was naive enough to think they were still using their own advertising . . . guess I was wrong :( P

Re:Rolling back prices...

[Stephen Maturin]

... Or will they have kiosks in the store where you can download your music?
Frankly, I would like a selection of circus music to listen to while I shop at Wally-World. I don't know where some of these people come from, but it makes my heart glad to see them. In older times, people had to wait for a travelling circus or carnival to come to town to see a fraction of the freaks and weirdos that I see every time I go to WalMart.
I KNOW that one day I'm going to see someone bite the head off a live chicken.

Re:Rolling back prices...

[unother]

Silly man!

M&A is all about streamlining businesses and reducing efficiencies. Why, that would require having separate advertising departments for two nations, and in this age of monoculture, what purpose would that server?

Re:Rolling back prices...

[big_gibbon]

Absolutely! If I'd stopped to think about it, I'd probably have worked it out. It's just always the little things that make you realise quite how globalised the world is . . . when someone half a planet away is watching identical adverts. P

Re:Rolling back prices...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but they will sell it "bulk" at SAM's Club

Too....many......music download services

[dethl]

Why Wal-Mart, why? Isn't the industry flooded enough as is? Although Wal-Mart does make enough to offset the losses it will incur with the music service (as all music services do), its just another iTMS wannabe.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Shakrai]

Why Wal-Mart, why? Isn't the industry flooded enough as is? Although Wal-Mart does make enough to offset the losses it will incur with the music service (as all music services do), its just another iTMS wannabe.

Yes, and they don't have iPods to make up the loss. Are we going to see a "Dr. Thunder" generic brand iPod to compete with iTMS like they compete with Pepsi? ;)

Re:Too....many......music download services

[dethl]

Yeah, but their Pod' will probably only play censored music. :P

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but their Pod' will probably only play censored music. :P

Yep, and the people that listen to it will be brainwashed by some sort of sublimal message into happily taking min. wage jobs for an evil conglomerate corporation that drives local businesses out of existence! But in good news, productivity in your local Asian sweatshop has skyrocketed....

Seriously, is it just me or are Wal-Mart employees WAY too happy? I want some of what they are taking....

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Amiga Lover]

IMHO we're in a transition period, where the market is flooded with more services than you can count, and more services than can possibly survive. This is something I see as only an incredibly good thing. The competition between them all will weed out the utter trash, the competition between the better services will improve those, and in time we'll have music download services that are actually useful

I don't consider any of the current pay-for-download services anywhere near useful yet, they all suffer from a variety of DRM, lock-in and cost problems, but more will come into the market to compete with those, on a platform that PEOPLE want, not manufacturers

Re:Too....many......music download services

[SewersOfRivendell]

more will come into the market to compete with those, on a platform that PEOPLE want, not manufacturers

Not if you want music owned by the RIAA record trust. Competition requires the availability of more than one different product in the first place, and the only product these stores can offer is DRM-encrusted. The RIAA won't be giving that up anytime soon without a revolt from one of it's multinational members.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[flyingace]

As a customer, I have to say there are new too many. I dont really care about profitability of Walmart or Apple. What I care about is Walmart will undercut the other services prices.. and that will cause healthy competition.

No more free mp3s, but its gonna be dirt cheap.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[zurab]

Why Mitsubishi, why? Isn't the industry flooded enough as is? Although Mitsubishi does make enough to offset the losses it will incur with the auto sales, it[']s just another Toyota wannabe.

Seriously, as a consumer of digital music online, why would you be against competition in the industry? It will only bring better service and performance from providers, more options, and let consumers pick the worthy ones from rip-offs. I'll withhold the judgement until I see the finished product.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Hobobo]

Umm remember high school economics? When firms see a market that is making a profit, more firms will enter that market until the profits disappear. How this got +4 insightful I have no idea..

Re:Too....many......music download services

[SuuSt]

Damn that competition. Somebody really should do something about that.

Wal-Mart to the rescue!

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever been in a Wal-mart, or is this some stupid observation you made by watching their commercials?

Re:Too....many......music download services

[monkeyfinger]

Even if they sold downloaded tunes at little or no profit it would still get people onto their online website. I'm willing to bet there will be plenty of walmart adverts and links on their download page.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Anonymous Coward]

no, he just reads what pinko commie fags have to say about a store that they've never been to either, but are more than willing to spread labor union lies. there are lots of stores along with the wal-mart in the smaller towns I've been in. how do they survive? by selling goods and services that wal-mart, kmart, etc don't and/or higher quality products. funny, people don't bitch and moan with a Fred's dollar store, big lots, or other close out merchandise store move into town - they are selling even cheaper and crappier goods that even wal-mart couldn't sell!

Re:Too....many......music download services

[dabadab]

And this is bad for you how? Just let them compete!
(And I really don't think that half-dozen online music services could be called "many".)

Re:Too....many......music download services

[timeOday]

Why Wal-Mart, why? Isn't the industry flooded enough as is? Although Wal-Mart does make enough to offset the losses it will incur with the music service (as all music services do), its just another iTMS wannabe.

Well, that's the thing about Wal-Mart. You might despise them, but they built their company by entering an already crowded field (retailing) and clawing their way to the top of the heap. I don't know why you think they'll lose money on music downloads - they've built their entire empire on selling for prices that drive the competition out of business (see KMart).

For every song downloaded, WalMart will be paying less royalties to the RIAA, and a lower fee to VISA than anybody else, simply because they're big enough to drive a harder bargain. The Apple service might still have more flair, but if Wal-Mart proves anything it's that people shop prices.

None of which is to say that the service will be worth using. It'll surely be DRM'd like the others. The old emusic service was the only one I've found worthwhile.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[ducomputergeek]

One reason is because Wal-Mart is reaching their limit to the number of retail stores which it can open. In St, Louis, you won't find any super-centers carring groceries because of the strong unions up there. In fact the last time I visited my dad, the unions were running ads against Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart started their neighborhood markets chain because the retail center brick wall in expantion, and with out growth, Stock price goes down.

Wal-Mart will use their buying power, aka if you don't sell us those song's invoices for $.49 each we won't carry your mp3 players or DVD's sony et. al., and then sell their song for $.89 each undercutting Apple and the other stores.

I also read an ad stating Wal-Mart was looking into used cars as well. However, Wal-Mart has had some pretty rough experiances when moving out of their element of retail or expanding into other markets. I read some pretty funny articles about Wal-Mart and Germany where the "Wal-Mart way "(the chat or song they sing at the beginning of each shift) didn't go over too well. Something about bringing back memories of how the Nazi's worked.

I mean, jumping into the Grociery business is not a far step from retail. They are related industries. So is online music downloading, they will figure out a way to undercut everyone's price. Now if the other stores get under-cut, it could be a RICO-type or anti-trust if Wal-Mart uses it muscle to force the RIAA to give them a discount and noone else.

Re:Too....many......music download services

[freeweed]

The RIAA won't be giving that up anytime soon without a revolt from one of it's multinational members.

Good. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest music retailers in the world (although I'm not sure how far out of North America they've expanded, if at all).

The only problem is, I can't see Wal-Mart (of all places!) actually fighting the establishment anymore. Their customers are far too docile. A coupla decades ago maybe, but they have near-monopoly status these days in some areas. And soccer Moms and Dads don't exactly care about DRM :(

Re:Too....many......music download services

[Anonymous Coward]

...it could be a RICO-type or anti-trust if Wal-Mart uses it muscle to force the RIAA to give them a discount and noone else.

RIAA can't give anyone a discount, only a label/publisher can.

Good

[iPaqMan]

Now maybe a company with some real power can force the labels to reduce their rediculus pricing structure!

Do we need another?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we really need another online music store? iTunes and Napster are great, they work well and have a rather large album of songs. Why add another store which will have the same set of songs?

Fortress of Insanity
Blogzine

Re:Do we need another?

[starnix]

Um.... It's called competition. Competition drives down price. Competition is gooooooood.......

Re:Do we need another?

[venicebeach]

Why add another store which will have the same set of songs?

Worse, why add another store which will have a subset of the songs? The article states that Walmart is discussion with the 5 major record labels... Apple has contracted with many independent labels, and I don't really see these indies striking up a deal with Walmart.

Also, Apple has admitted they don't make much off the store and really use it to sell iPods - what exactly is Walmart's plan here?

Re:Do we need another?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you don't understand Wal-Mart. They move into places where they are not needed, eventually drive out all the other competition. They sell cheap plastic crap made in (insert your favorite sweat-shop industry someplace in asia).

Re:Do we need another?

[GreyWolf3000]

We don't. Furthermore, in light of your insightful post, I've decided to give up Linux and start really using my PC. And that means running Microsoft Windows.

Re:Do we need another?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's doubtful since iTunes makes nearly 0 profit. Most of your 99 cents goes back to the copyright holders and pays for hosting the services. You really can't drop the price below 99 cents.

Fortress of Insanity
Blogzine

Re:Do we need another?

[Mawen]

Give up Linux? Not really using your current distro? Perhaps you should try gentoo! Some people said "Do we really need another Linux distro", but gentoo people said yes, and thanks to that, running linux is now a dream!

And I'm sure you like whatever non-gentoo distro you use too.

These people who say why have more competition blow my mind. They are so eager to be a part of the Slashbot hate-everything bandwagon (flash haters, gentoo zealot haters, gentoo zealot hater haters, **IA h8rs, and even the reactionary slashbot haters) but then they forget to check in their brains. Oops.

"I want there to be only TWO online music distributors, darnit! That way it is less likely that I will find one that has music I like, and it will be more likely that I will get to pay more money, just like I get to pay $300 for my operating system."

Of course, if the ones carrying indy labels are forced out of the market, that would suck.

BTW, most of the music I listen to is from mp3.com. I want to hear trance, which isn't on any local radio stations (although I just discovered Digitally Imported which is sweet), but going to local music stores' listening booths sucks because it's physically inconvenient and selection is so limited, and I've had enough of buying blindly.

--
"Karma is earned to be burned. It is how balance is kept in the universe."

Re:Do we need another?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Also, Apple has admitted they don't make much off the store and really use it to sell iPods - what exactly is Walmart's plan here?

To sell... WallyPods? (Insert Simpsons hick family scene with appropriate imagery and cheesy device....)

Kulture Klash

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how Wal-Mart Online is going to have some animated drone greet me when I enter the website?

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

How can Wal-Mart include an RFID tag in music downloads?! How will they be able to track me?

Re:But...

[wirelessbuzzers]

How can Wal-Mart include an RFID tag in music downloads?! How will they be able to track me?

Don't worry... your IP address, WalMart Valued Customer Number, and credit card number should be enough.

Also makes you wonder.....

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

If they'll offer a wide range. Wal-mart tends to be somewhat puritanical on what they offer. (Marilyn Manson anyone?).
Still for mainstream music it shouldn't be too bad. Here's an older story about Wal-Mart's controls on music sales.

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[aardvarkjoe]

Marilyn Manson anyone?

No thanks. I prefer listening to music.

Anyway, with any luck, they might offer songs for less than $1 a song -- in which case, it might be worth looking into. (Even if I was inclined to buy songs that wouldn't be available through the wal-mart service, a service with some of the songs I want is better than none.)

Of course, chances are that you'll need some proprietary windows software to play the music, so I doubt I'll be able to use it anyway.

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[llamaluvr]

They're one of the few mainstream stores that actually has a decent Christian music selection, so hopefully they'll carry that on their service. Some folks may see a lack of choices, but, some of the stuff they sell isn't found at target, K-mart, or even BMG, Best-Buy, or Circuit City. And probably not in the iTunes store either.

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[mlarios]

Since when is Christian music decent?

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[mackstann]

No thanks. I prefer listening to music.

Not that I'm a Marilyn Manson fan, but this method of declaring some music you don't like "not music" is just stupid. The funny thing is that the music that has been called "not music" in the past has very often become some of the most popular and influential music around. Elvis, KISS, ACDC, Black Sabbath, rap/hip-hop in general, etc.

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[Anonymous Coward]

some of what is now known as Classical used to be christian music.

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[kryptkpr]

Where are the mod points when I need them..

+1 (Intelligent)

Re:Also makes you wonder.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Right. Popular music in general is becoming 'harder'. Rap-metal, rock-metal (or new metal or whatever they call the followup to grunge, ala Staind, System of a Down, etc). Music that has been underground a few years ago is playing on the radio today, in a more polished, softened and more accessible form.

Re:I own a Record Store

[Aliencow]

You don't sell "Sick Marilyn Manson" ?
What's so sick about him?
The fact he knows how to market the fuck out of his stuff ?
Cop killer rap... Rap lyrics ever killed anyone? I know 50 cent fucking annoys me but I haven't died *yet*.
See guys, when you don't let kids play dodgeball cause it's bad for their self-esteem they turn into Christian music store owners.

Lossless

[Patik]

The first company to sell decent music using a lossless codec will get my money. Until then, I can't justify spending $10+ for an album of crappy MP3s when I can buy the CD used for less (or even sometimes new for a dollar or two more).

Re:Lossless

[CoolGopher]

Check out http://www.magnatune.com then. The range is still limited, but you get lossless music if you want it (and MP3s if that's your preferred option).

There was also a /. story covering that site a month or two ago. Check the archives.

Re:Lossless

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. I probably wouldn't even mind a lame --alt-preset-extreme (or similar high quality) encoded MP3. But I worry that low quality music is catching on so rapidly. Most people I talk to don't notice or don't care about the quality of the MP3s they listen to. If most consumers don't care about quality are these online music stores going to both providing (or continuing to provide) high quality songs. I don't have any experience with online music stores yet, but I suspect many provide 128kbit or even 64kbit songs. If I buy a crappy 128kbit song from one of these stores then download a much higher quality version elsewhere, am I legally entitled to listen that higher quality version (assuming higher quality isn't available for sale online somewhere)??

Re:Lossless

[SmallFurryCreature]

You want to buy only a lossless codec wich is why you are sticking with cd's for now. Mmmm, right. You do know that cd's aren't lossless either? They leave out parts of the original sound to fit on a cd.

Re:Lossless

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess what? Even if you eschew the fact that CDs are a rather low quality representation of natural sound, given that you can't sustain real harmonics when you cut audio 44,100 times over a second (or any number of times every second, since you interrupt the audio regardless), you *still* won't get the full quality listening on the average home stereo. Yes, even your fancy Bose system. If you want the real deal, expect to blow a serious load of cash on a fully analog system, complete with tube preamps, tube drivers, etc. No solid-state amp is going to reproduce the actual sound as it was before it was recorded (and digitally recorded at that!) When you couple that with the fact that your source of music, being the CD player, is entirely digital, you end up pretty much shit outta luck from all angles.

How's that justification feel now? :)

Re:Lossless

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of you still don't get it. The average consumer does not even know what bitrate is, let alone care about it. Hell, some songs these days might even sound better like that ;).

Re:Lossless

[reptilicus]

But are you willing to spend $1 for a decent enough copy of the one song you want off an album, rather than $18.99 for the higher quality cd and all the filler?

Re:Lossless

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is your point? When a person says "lossless" audio, they mean it's exactly the same as the CD. Lossless means it isn't compressed compared to the original source. When the original source is the CD, a lossless .ape or .wav is exactly the same. Nobody has access to the original studio recordings. I'm damn glad I have average hearing... I'd hate to be one of the people that complain that a CD sounds so bad. Imaging if you lived 70 years ago... you'd go crazy having to listen to mono AM radio.

Re:Lossless

[Anonymous Coward]

But I worry that low quality music is catching on so rapidly.

Yeah, FM radio (and before that, AM radio) is SOOOO MUCH BETTER. You audiophiles are marginal, get over it and get back to coloring your CDs green.

Re:Lossless

[Patik]

I know, but since they don't make analog records anymore, I'm stuck with 16-bit 44.1kHz audio. If they sold 24/96 audio then sure, I'd buy that for a reasonable price. Right now a CD is the best I can buy, so I want that or an exact copy of it.

Re:Lossless

[Patik]

CDs aren't $18.99 at the big retailers anymore. Best Buy, Circuit City, and others have many $9.99 and $10.99 CDs. Whether it's one song or 20 that I'm buying, I won't pay for watered down, compressed crap like 128kbps MP3s. So yes, I'd rather buy the whole disc and get the filler (in this case I'd buy it used).

Re:Lossless

[John Courtland]

Most stuff also comes out on vinyl, which is more fragile, but always sounds better.

Re:Lossless

[John Courtland]

You don't understand transistors, they can produce analog signals, the same as a vacuum tube. Also, why do you think vacuum tubes were used in the first computers? All a NAND gate is, is a tiny ass amplifier. And once you build a NAND gate, the rest of the computer follows...

Re:Lossless

[danielsfca2]

Oh please. 160k MP3/128k AAC is just fine. I don't want to pay more just to please the ears of the 1% of people who can tell the difference. "Lossless" compression would require a lot more bandwidth (primary concern) as well as storage, so they will want to charge more for it. However, all of these online music stores know that there is not enough of a market for it (Sorry, you and your 3 friends with $10k stereos do not constitute a market). So keep getting your music at the record store and the rest of us will have fun downloading our "lossy" MP3s.

Re:Lossless

[Patik]

Oh please. 160k MP3/128k AAC is just fine. I don't want to pay more just to please the ears of the 1% of people who can tell the difference.

I was thinking they'd offer both formats, charging a little more for the lossless one.

Sorry, you and your 3 friends with $10k stereos do not constitute a market

$10k stereo? Try $40 headphones.

Re:Lossless

[danielsfca2]

Okay, I guess I was a little harsh there. When thinking open-mindedly now, I guess I can see that it wouldn't be a whole lot of trouble to do that kind of thing, so I hope somebody does come up with something that works for you.

It seems like I learned a long time ago that if you ZIP/RAR/etc a WAV or AIFF, you get a file not much bigger than the associated MP3. Is that close to true? I don't have a large music WAV right now to test with.

Re:Lossless

[Patik]

It seems like I learned a long time ago that if you ZIP/RAR/etc a WAV or AIFF, you get a file not much bigger than the associated MP3.

Nope. I believe ZIP and RAR just look at the series of 1s and 0s, whereas music compression codecs look at the actual waves representing the music and find similarities, so they're a little more advanced and specialized. If what you said was true, MP3 would never have been developed to begin with. Typically, lossless codecs get the file down to around 50-60% of the size, depending on the complexity of the music and what the codec was specialized for.

As an example of what I stated before, LivePhish.com sells both MP3 and FLAC copies of the concerts they offer. The FLAC files cost a little more due to their size and subsequent bandwidth costs.

Will it run on thier Lindows PCs?

[RumpRoast]

Online music for Linux, maybe?

Re:Will it run on thier Lindows PCs?

[SkArcher]

Now thats a good point: however much one dislikes Lindows as having all of the downsides of Windows, it wouldn't make much sense for them to allienate this customer base, which by presumably means a mainstream Linux port will be easier.

Now, would anyone like to bet on how long it will take before they bundle it on the machines they sell and someone start shouting about Anti-trust matters?

Re:Will it run on thier Lindows PCs?

[bfree]

Does Walmart really have anything remotely resembling a monopoly in any area which could make it liable to be looked at in an anti-trust light?

Go SHOVE A 6r33ced UP y0dA D0ll Up J00r A55

[Anonymous Coward]

cuZ yu0 All SlAshD0tters SuCk and Cmdr Lam0 think5 I hav3nT b33n p0tty tRaIneD yet (h3 5ez s0 in d33s b00k aNd 1 d0n't luV 60d5m4k aN|) 1 4m fU3led w1t d4 P0\/\/3r oPH SATAN

How will it make money?

[paxcirca]

I'm confused as to what Walmart's impetus here is. Steve Jobs has very clearly stated that iTMS makes about squat for profit; it's just a pretty Trojan Horse to get people to buy iPods (and eventually Macs). Walmart doesn't have an MP3 player (that I'm aware) to push. Selling music to get people to buy MP3 players seems a bit more plausible than, say, selling music to get people to buy tires/clothing/cereal in Walmart stores.

Re:How will it make money?

[ForestGrump]

Walmart sells computers don't they?
So I guess they can bundle it in with their computers.
50 free songs with the purchase of the box maybe?

As for portable music. They have this new RC car that can play songs purchased from the Wal-Mart Music Service (WMMS).
With select models that are equiped with WMMS, you can drive around and listen to your favorite tunes.

-Grump

Re:How will it make money?

[shark72]

"Steve Jobs has very clearly stated that iTMS makes about squat for profit; it's just a pretty Trojan Horse to get people to buy iPods (and eventually Macs). Walmart doesn't have an MP3 player (that I'm aware) to push. Selling music to get people to buy MP3 players seems a bit more plausible than, say, selling music to get people to buy tires/clothing/cereal in Walmart stores."

There are a TON of variables which define whether an enterprise makes a profit. Apple has been sinking a metric buttload of promotion money into iTMS so they aren't profitable at this moment. We have no way of knowing if Walmart's promotional budget would be similar to Apples. Additionally, one thing Walmart has that Apple doesn't is a network of retail stores in which they can advertise for free.

Re:How will it make money?

[Anonymous Coward]

dumbass, wal-mart is (1) after the fact and (2) more important than apple.

think about it.

Re:How will it make money?

[Demolition]

Apple has been sinking a metric buttload of promotion money into iTMS so they aren't profitable at this moment.

iTMS probably won't be profitable in the future, either, unless certain things change: 1) RIAA's cut of the iTMS proceeds decreases (from a reported 65%); 2) iTMS' operating costs (hosting, bandwidth, credit card company fees, etc.) decrease; and/or 3) they increase the per-song cost.

Additionally, one thing Walmart has that Apple doesn't is a network of retail stores in which they can advertise for free.

You seem to have forgotten about the brick-and-mortar Apple Stores (70+ stores, with more on the way).

D.

Re:How will it make money?

[goon america]

I'm confused as to what Walmart's impetus here is. Steve Jobs has very clearly stated that iTMS makes about squat for profit...

But remember: why would he say this?

1. Believes in full disclosure, doesn't like keeping secrets
   
2. He's required to disclose that according to some federal regulation
   
3. Because he wants to discourage potential competitors from entering the market
   

Well?

Re:How will it make money?

[SEE]

Wal-Mart has one major thing Apple doesn't:

Leverage.

Wal-Mart already sells a massive volume of music. That gives them the leverage to drive down the record company cut of sales. "I think we'll have to cut our CD pre-orders if you can't bend on your cut of the download sales" is an incredibly useful threat to be able to use at the bargaining table.

And forget just CD orders. How many of the major labels are owned by companies that sell other things retail? Sony sells electronics. Sony, Time Warner, and Vivendi Universal sell DVDs. Wal-Mart's purchasing power, as the #1 retailer in the U.S., is tremendous on those things, too.

And if Wal-Mart can just get better "invoicing" terms than Apple gets, that can make it profitable just on the interest earned on the consumer's money between sale and paying the record company.

Re:How will it make money?

[Anonymous Coward]

We buy the rights wholesale. ;)

Re:How will it make money?

[shark72]

"iTMS probably won't be profitable in the future, either, unless certain things change: 1) RIAA's cut of the iTMS proceeds decreases (from a reported 65%)"

Huh? The record company gets about 65 cents for each sale. That's a very different thing than "65% cut of proceeds."

That record company may or may not be a member of the RIAA. There are probably hundreds of record companies represented on iTMS, as well as "virtual" record companies like CDBaby that have nothing to do with the RIAA.

You're making it sound like the RIAA automatically gets a cut of profits -- not true in the least. Remember, the RIAA is a trade organization representing the recording industries. A record company may or may not be a member. Again, part of the $0.99 sale price per track goes to the record company. Not the RIAA.

"You seem to have forgotten about the brick-and-mortar Apple Stores (70+ stores, with more on the way)."

No, but I have an understanding of Walmart's retail presence vs. Apple's. Walmart has more than 70 stores in Germany. Worldwide, Wal-Mart has close to 5,000 stores of various types, the vast majority of which do far more business than a typical Apple-owned retail store. Last year Walmart had retail sales of a quarter of a trillion dollars. The marketing push that they can accomplish in their retail stores utterly dwarfs what Apple could do in their 70 boutique-style stores.

Re:How will it make money?

[Demolition]

I may have misread what was written in the articles that I linked to in one of my posts from another Slashdot thread. But, in the CD Freaks article that I linked to, it clearly says "65% cut".

This is neither here nor there, though. I still stand by my earlier post above, however. Apple does not make a profit from iTMS, and may not in the future unless some things change.

As for the second bit about Walmart's retail presence vs. Apple's, I merely pointed out that Apple does have a retail presence. Your earlier statement seemed to indicate the contrary. I merely pointed out that your statement (as I read it) was incorrect.

D.

Re:How will it make money?

[Otto]

Oh yes. And Wal-Mart does this too, and does it incredibly well. Wal-Mart more or less *creates* the prices in this country, on all kinds of items. They have no scruples about using exactly the kind of leverage you talk about either. They've done it before.

One more reason not to shop there.

Re:How will it make money?

[bleckywelcky]

Wal-Mart's purchasing power, as the #1 retailer in the U.S.

Wal-Mart isn't just the #1 retailer in the US, they are the largest company in the world. With an anual revenue that just peaked US $250 Billion with the last quarter. Only 30 countries in the entire world make more money than they do. On the world listing, Wal-Mart is ranked just above Saudi Arabia which has a yearly GDP of US $242 Billion.

Heck, Wal-Mart's yearly revenue is just 1/40th of the entire USA GDP.

Wal-Mart is so large they have the ability to tell their suppliers what price they will pay for their products. They have thousands upon thousands of stores all around the world which enables them to catch such a huge market.

And guess what, Wal-Mart is a privately held company to boot!

Re:How will it make money?

[Anonym0us Cow Herd]

Wal-Mart needs to understand that people don't want to download music online. They want to visit a physical store and pay artificially high prices for a limited selection of music that are willing to be raped by the RIAA.

After all, which kinds of businesses usually succeed? Businesses that offer consumers what they want at a reasonable price? Or businesses that screw the consumer, call them thieves, sue them, pass draconian legislation, and restrict choices? After all, the only good music is RIAA music.

Maybe now that I've posted this, Wal-Mart will reconsider. And others will stop jumping onto this music downloading fad which is not what people really want.

Re:How will it make money?

[ucsckevin]

This leverage often results in lower prices.
Why is that a reason not to shop at wal-mart?
If they can offer songs online at a lower price, why shouldn't I purchase through them? Because they don't have a cool marekting image like apple? (all drm restrictions being equal).

Re:How will it make money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah... privately held. And they have swastikas on their sleeves and enslave entire populations of people.

They're eeeeeevil. Pffphf.

Re:How will it make money?

[Octagon Most]

And guess what, Wal-Mart is a privately held company to boot!

I guess so, if by "privately held" you mean owned by all the shareholders that freely buy and sell WMT on the New York Stock Exchange.

Re:How will it make money?

[ear2ground]

They can also link their other high tech products - mp3 players, computers, etc. - to the site - the download service can lose money and the company still make a profit from it.

Coming soon ....

[R33MSpec]

All that is left now is Microsoft's turn:

(1) Call it MS Tunester
(2) Bundle with new version of Media Player
(3) Introduce Drakonian DRM
(5) ????
(6) Profit!

Re:Coming soon ....

[Anonymous Coward]

(1) Spell draconian correctly (2) ??? (3) Use spellcheck

Re:Coming soon ....

[Neo-Rio-101]

The RIAA etc. are cautious of MS as much as the OSS people. The RIAA etc want to avoid vendor lock-in with the distribution of their music, afraid of what MS would do with it. Yet, there is no open source project who in their right mind who would even bother making an open standards DRM for no reward - thus defeating the purpose.

I am surprised that MS hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet... but I know their strategy will be to buy out whoever wins the on-line music war... cause we all know MS can't innovate for poo-poo. (despite how much their marketing division deliberately overuse the word)

Re:Coming soon ....

[kcbrown]

I am surprised that MS hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet... but I know their strategy will be to buy out whoever wins the on-line music war... cause we all know MS can't innovate for poo-poo. (despite how much their marketing division deliberately overuse the word)

Be kinda hard for MS to buy out Wal-Mart, and if Wal-Mart gets into the online music war then I'd expect them to win it if only because of the kind of leverage they are likely to have against the RIAA -- much more than just about anyone else.

Re:Coming soon ....

[Anonymous Coward]

It should be the other way around:

(1) Use spellcheck
(2) ???
(3) Spell draconian correctly

Or is the spellchecker 2)?

(1) Write big words you don't understand
(2) Use spellcheck
(3) Spell draconian correctly

Re:Coming soon ....

[pmz]

Actually, it'll be called MS Teamster, and step 3 is handled by a little man with a bat that comes in the box set.

And we would use it because...?

[evn]

The article is pretty vague. Wal-mart is going to start an online music store to compete with other services which have been successful. Unless they can offer something darn impressive I think they'll have a hard time getting it out the door.

Apple offers you iTunes - excellent music software that people actually want to use (just look at the number of non-US downloads for proof).

Napster 2 offers...well, it's got plenty of name recognition - the music selection/pricing scheme is a little different and the format works on a variety of players.

The other services (buymusic, napster, pressplay...) haven't had near the success of the iTMS. Unless walmart has some sort of killer feature that people are actually asking for they're doomed to be another smalltime player.

what could that feature be?
- Lossless files
- No DRM/Regular MP3
- Extremely cheap pricing ($.10 - $.50)
- EVERY major artist/song represented (and more indie tracks too)
Without one of those it's just more of the same, and there is no reason for consumers to choose walmart's startup over the much more popular ITMS or the much more established napster.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Apple offers you iTunes - excellent music software that people actually want to use (just look at the number of non-US downloads for proof)."

You do realize that iTunes is a forced download. Any time you get quicktime you are now forced to install iTunes. Although it can be removed after, I don't think counting the number of iTunes downloads is an indication of anything.

iTunes isn't that great, really. I've seen winamp plugins that do a better job of organizing your collection, and after the RIAA war on consumers, I don't think I'll be buying anything any time soon.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[deadmongrel]

what could that feature be? > Lossless files
perhaps!
>No DRM/Regular MP3
No way RIAA would allow it
> Extremely cheap pricing ($.10 - $.50)
Probably .75 to match rhapsody. Hell I would pay $1 iff its regular MP3 without DRM
>EVERY major artist/song represented (and more indie tracks too)
Never gonna happen.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Shakrai]

Lossless files

That would be nice. C'mon boys what is all this broadband for after all? I'd rather spend half an hour or 45 minutes downloading 650 megs of lossless music (rough guess on my 3mbit RR download) then take a trip to the store to buy a CD. And that's the worst case scenario. You could use lossless compression to cut down a 650 meg CD by quite a bit I suspect. How well does that data compress?

No DRM/Regular MP3

Not going to happen as long as RIAA controls things... any other viewpoint is naive :( Not that I don't completely agree with you...

Extremely cheap pricing ($.10 - $.50)

Of all my complaints with iTMS (mainly DRM, but also the system resource hog that iTunes seems to be), I can't argue with the prices. Sure cheaper is always better, but $0.99 is pretty reasonable imho.

EVERY major artist/song represented (and more indie tracks too)

That's the biggest thing I think. There are several of my mp3s that I've been unable to find on iTMS. C'mon, what's the Internet for if we can't have instant access to every piece of music ever created by human beings in any language?

Re:And we would use it because...?

[noewun]

You do realize that iTunes is a forced download. Any time you get quicktime you are now forced to install iTunes. Although it can be removed after, I don't think counting the number of iTunes downloads is an indication of anything.

WTF are you talking about? Last time I installed Quicktime, I installed Quicktime and nothing else.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Kulic]

Something that I've been wondering lately - how much time does it take to set up an online music store? You've got to sort out the code, the content, the licensing etc.

The reason I ask is because we've just had a number of stores launch within 6 months of each other. Did these people "get it" a year ago and start work on their stores then? Or does it only take a month to set up, and everyone has been jumping on the "me too" bandwagon.

Of course, what interests me is not who will be opening online music stores in the next 2 years, but who will still be around after 2 years and have consumers buying their products.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[kuzb]

Then you have not installed quicktime recently, it is now bundled with itunes

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, its the -other- way around.

Download iTunes, and you get Quicktime.
Download Quicktime, and you get Quicktime. (Unless you -choose- to download iTunes with quicktime, but its disabled by default)

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most likely the RIAA was holding out licencing. Once they gave in and allowed it to happen, everyone can jump in too.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[Chainsaw]

You could use lossless compression to cut down a 650 meg CD by quite a bit I suspect. How well does that data compress?

About 40-50% size reduction using the free Flac codec isn't unusual. Say 300MB for a 60-minute CD.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[MightyYar]

what could that feature be?
- Lossless files
- No DRM/Regular MP3
- Extremely cheap pricing ($.10 - $.50)
- EVERY major artist/song represented (and more indie tracks too)

Have you seen this?

I don't know if it is legit or not - I'm a little hesitant to give my credit card number to a Russian site that seems too good to be true. I am tempted because they offer:

• Any file format you want, including ogg, mpc, etc.
• No DRM - you can even have them use LAME to encode the mp3s.
• Price that depends on file size, not number of songs. It is $0.01/MB, which seems absurdly low to me. Or you can just pay $14.95/mo to get up to 1000 songs of any size.
• Not EVERY artist is available, but they have the usual hundreds-of-thousands number that the other sites have.

Now, supposedly they can do this because Russian law treats them like a radio station, so they pay the same royalties that a radio station does. Any thoughts?

Re:And we would use it because...?

[holstein]

Lossless files

If they would do this, this would basically means No DRM/Regular MP3. If the files are offered in lossless versions, there is no problem re-encoding them to ogg/mp3/whatnot : it's a problem to convert between lossy compression because they don't lost the exact same kind of things. But from a lossless format, well, go on.

Re:And we would use it because...?

[fermion]

Walmart has leverage in the consumer market that MS and Apple can only dream about. Walmart can exploit that leverage in any number of ways to help brick and mortar store sales. For example

For every CD bought a wal mart, the customer is entitled to a bonus online track by the same artist, and a free track from a select list. This requires that one set up an account on the service.

Gift certificates available at Wal Mart for the service, that can be given to friends. Unused gift certificates result in free money for Walmart. Interest earned until certificates are used.

Gift certificates for the service given with the purchase of MP3 players.

Frequent download programs that result significantly reduced or free product.

Parents will feel more secure about kids using the service because Wal Mart is a protector of a certain form of morality, and the service will allow the parents to easily control and view the child's purchases.

The resources to set up a platform neutral distribution network, thought might be limited with necessary DRM.

There are many other possibilities. Their enumeration is left as an exercise to the reader. The possibility of not controling 25% of the online market is nill.

Gives a new meaning to "rollback"

[obsidianpreacher]

>Downloading $HOT_NEW_SONG
0%[..________]100%
0%[....______]1 00%
0%[......____]100%
0%[........._]100%
ERROR : CONNECTION TIMEOUT

>Downloading $HOT_NEW_SONG
Wal-Mart automatically Rollsback for you!
0%[..________]100%
0%[....______]100%
ERRO R: CONNECTION TIMEOUT

>Downloading $HOT_NEW_SONG
Wal-Mart automatically Rollsback for you!
0%[__________]100%

...

My prayers are answered

[dswensen]

What a lucky break, I've been wondering where on God's green earth I can find me some Billy Ray Cyrus, Duelin' Banjos Play the "Lion King" Theme and Now That's What I Call Music Oh God Please Stop MXCVIII.

Now the only question is whether or not the Web site will blast obnoxious audio at you on full volume, like they do in the actual stores.

Re:My prayers are answered

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose you might could turn up your speakers and play the Billy Ray Cyrus while you're on the Wal-Mart website.

Slightly OT observation...

[Cyno01]

Anyone else notice that all (and only) the white people in walmart commercials have southern accents? Everyone else talks normal, i just find this weird. Also more OT... Dean shoulda just said he wants to be the candidate for people who drive their pickup trucks to walmart, woulda saved him a lot of trouble.

Re:Slightly OT observation...

[Anonymous Coward]

Walmarts are illegal in Vermont.

Re:Slightly OT observation...

[Trolling 4 dollas]

Now you listen here you litle yella belli unpatriotik foo. I'ms gonna takes you outback to tha box crusha and crush you. We whiteys at walmart are teh smarts ones.

Re:Slightly OT observation...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dean could have said the sky was blue, and, regardless of his party affiliation, somebody would still have bitched.

Politics used to be about voting for the better man. Then it became about voting for your party. Now its like Lets Make a Deal. What will my candidate give me Monty? Probably something most people wouldn't want.

the big question is

[Anonymous Coward]

how will they get the retards to greet you at the door?

pop-up ads maybe?

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

I will never pay to download music when I can get it for free.

wal-mart will

[hansoloaf]

have the website designed in China and maintained by illegal immigrants in the USA.

The RIAA will never survive it.

[blair1q]

Wal-Mart has a corporate policy of beating suppliers until they relent on pricing.

Since digital music costs fractions of a penny to duplicate, the marginal cost is less than one cent, which is where the RIAA's revenue will go once they've been strong-armed by the Wal-Mart business process.

The only way Wal-Mart will not do this is if they buy the RIAA outright and use their ownership to make up "cost" numbers.

Note that this will be "passed on to the consumer" in the form of a 1% reduction in retail prices.

Re:The RIAA will never survive it.

[Anonymous Coward]

$0.97 instead of $0.99 (mmmmm wal-mart rollbacks) can make quite a difference when converting a kazaa-built library into one a bit more compatible with future Microsoft and Apple products.

Imagine 5000 songs at $0.02 savings each: $100. A good start towards an ipod if you ask me.

Re:The RIAA will never survive it.

[obsidianpreacher]

Imagine 5000 songs at $0.02 savings each: $100. A good start towards an ipod [sic] if you ask me.

Well, if you're damn rich enough to afford 5000 songs at $0.97 each = $4850, you're damn rich enough to buy a $400 iPod ... jeez ...

Re:The RIAA will never survive it.

[Aero Leviathan]

How can they 'buy' the RIAA? It's an organisation, made up of large record labels like Sony... unless I missed something...

Nudie Mags?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if the CD will come with a copy of Playboy Magazine?

Playboy's women of Walmart

Let's get our priorities straight

[fusionfreak]

I think we're all forgetting the most important thing, the Women of Walmart: http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/12/news/companies/wal mart_playboy/

Re:Let's get our priorities straight

[crabpeople]

ahem.... torrent?

Re:I own a Record Store

[Zelet]

Why isn't there an 'awesome' mod?

The question is, how bad will it suck?

[JoshuaDFranklin]

I wonder if it will suck as bad compared to iTunes Music Store as their DVD rental service does compared to NetFlix.

Just read a few of the newsgroup postings about that: Google Groups on Wal-Mart/NetFlix

Re:The question is, how bad will it suck?

[Captain_Chaos]

I wonder if it will suck as bad compared to iTunes Music Store as their DVD rental service does compared to NetFlix.

Just read a few of the newsgroup postings about that: Google Groups on Wal-Mart/NetFlix

In other words, it should be much better?

.com bomb - The Sequel

[Namaseit]

For the love of god, who's next. Safeway and Albertson's making online music offerings. Its just another hugely overrated thing. As usual. Cause one company has *short term* success with something, every fucking company on the planet now has to offer it too. iTunes is just about the only one that I think will actually stay around after this dies down(although the iPod is expensive as hell). Personally I dont like any of them. Cause they all have some bullshit attached, DRM, only playable on computer, etc.

Re:I own a Record Store

[Anonymous Coward]

I know this is probably just a troll, but if this asshole really does own a music store, will anyone else be surprised when he goes out of business? Seriously dude, your customer relationship skills need some real work.

This is great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nowadays, it's hip to roll out an online music provider. But that's not necesarily a bad thing. What we tend to forget as we groan about the latest company offering $1-a-track music is that these very companies are competing for our money.
The more big players get in the game, the higher the stakes. Bigger selections, lower prices, and yes, fewer restrictions will (hopefully) prevail. It's a young marketplace yet, and we'll see even more of a buyer's market.

Re:This is great!

[Namaseit]

Yah but then the market gets so saturated that no one makes enough money to cover costs of running it and it blows up in their faces.

A minor drawback

[fleener]

A minor drawback to online sales is that there will never be surplus discounts. If I can pay 50 cents a song, great, it won't matter. If not, well, I'm accustomed to paying $10 for a CD in the bargain barrel (and liking most of the songs) or $5 at a used CD shop. There is no need or cause for liquidation sales online and no way (?) to sell used electronic music without causing a big flap.

Now when the artists break from cover, thats news!

[bfree]

I for one am waiting for the day that a selection of artists such as Dre (and hence m'n'm), Madonna, George Michael, Kylie, Aphex Twin and Garth Brooks launch their own online music store, where you can purchase the music directly from the artists. Ideally the system would have a moderation system whereby as you buy music, you would be presented with the music which the artists you have purchased music from like, and/or the people who have also bought the music which you did also liked. That way the system would promote diveristy as you would not just be presented with the top 10, but with your own potential top 10. Until the artists come direct (and I don't think that will happen until some of the big players who have more than enough money to not care if things go wrong do it) to me this may be news but it sure doesn't matter.

Re:I own a Record Store

[Delphiki]

They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?

And some people are not sure this is a troll....? Ah well, definitely an amusing troll at least.

Martha

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard Martha Stewart's Living and K-Mart are going to have an online music store too.

Re:Martha

[Helios292]

Has Martha signed with Death Row Records yet?

Fuck the po-lice. It's a good thing.

The Content?

[newshooze]

I heard the content was limited to dupes of old trucker tapes. Is that true?

Random Stuff

Sounds all fine and dandy but...

[j33px0r]

I'll keep my money and keep burning away thank you very much. I've burned a couple hundred albums and my vengence is still not quencehed for having been suckered into paying money for 'Yellow Submarine.' The RIAA will crash and I will burn.

Related to this...

[amanpatelhotmail.com]

Yet another music service in the works?...

Just in my inbox:

--------------------
Subject: Important MP3.com Announcement

CNET Networks, Inc announced today that it has acquired certain assets of MP3.com, Inc.

Please be advised that on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST the MP3.com website will no longer be accessible in its current form.

CNET Networks, Inc. plans to introduce a new MP3 music service in the near future. If you would like to receive email updates on this service, including an invitation to a special members-only preview, please sign up here.

MP3.com is not transferring your personal information to CNET Networks, Inc. or any other third party.

On behalf of all of us at MP3.com we thank you for your patronage and continued support. It has been a privilege to host one of the largest and most diverse collections of music in the world. MP3.com wishes to express its sincere thanks to each of you for making us your premier destination for music online.

Sincerely,
MP3.com
--------------------

A spreading phenomenon

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like the AIDS and Linux viruses are spreading because of homosexuals, the downloading of music spread very fast with so many people stealing intellectual property for their personal enjoyment. Interestingly, social perversion also attracts business minded people.

iRedneck

[jeeryg_flashaccess]

So Walmart is going to offer lots of Country music right? right?!?

OGG support?

[VeloDrax]

Will they support OGG? Screw them if they don't! Give me OGG downloads for half a penny each and maybe I'll consider buying. Oh, and screw DRM. Everything in life should be free! One more thing, give me obscure music by some band recording out of their parent's garage! I want crappy independent garage music, lots of it! If music isn't free and independent it's not worth listening to. Linux rules! Screw everyone who thinks otherwise! Phew. Did that cover it? Please feel free to add to my post in case I missed something.

Hehe....he said wafe...

[Mrs. Grundy]

Well, being the astute student of English that I am, I looked up 'wafe' in the Oxford English Dictionary. They have it listed as an obsolete variations of Waive, a verb which means "To move to and fro or from side to side." Although it seems pretty unlikely that spending my time digging around in the OED is going o get me wafed (assuming it takes the regular past tense (the ladies love it when you talk about linguistics (almost as much as (riduclously) nested quotes))) anytime soon I though you might be interested. For what it's worth, the most recent example the OED has listed for 'waive' as a verb is from 1570.

Re:Hehe....he said wafe...

[SiliBelgian]

Although it seems pretty unlikely that spending my time digging around in the OED is going o get me wafed (assuming it takes the regular past tense (the ladies love it when you talk about linguistics (almost as much as (riduclously) nested quotes))) anytime soon

Welcome experienced LISP programmer :)

Re:Hehe....he said wafe...

[monkeyfinger]

I looked up 'wafe' in the Oxford English Dictionary

The word he used in the article was "waif". This originally meant a homeless child, but nowadays tends to refer to skinny women/girls, especially in relation to models. Some very famous skinny supermodels are now referred to as "superwaifs".

So the request "waif me" would result in a skinny woman doing something to you. Sounds less painful than "rape me".

Re:Hehe....he said wafe...

[Anonymous Coward]

There are several different kinds of brackets {my favourite are the curly brackets} on most keyboards [square ones are kind of interesting]. The reason (as though I should need to explain [but then again, this is Slashdot {news for nerds, stuff that matters } after all] [and I'm damn well going to explain anyway]) is to do with nesting. Whilst programming languages {such as C [and its direct descendents (from Perl to Java) and assorted hangers-on]} traditionally impose conventions about what bracket gets used for what purpose (round for function arguments, square for array indexes, curly for blocks of statements executed together and mustang for less-than and more-than) human beings prefer (because we are that way inclined [well, some of us]) using different shaped brackets to indicate nesting levels.

WALMART IS EVIL. n/t

[Jafafa Hots]

yes.

You know

[Enrico Pulatzo]

that Apple's doing something right if people think it's profitable. Maybe the big 5 are just pushing hard for other music stores to open up now that Apple has shown that it can be successful, or at least pay for itself.

More details from the Rejected Post Machine

[securitas]

Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music

2003-11-11 13:10:14 Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comcast to Offer Online Music (articles,music) (rejected)

Wal-Mart will launch its own digital music download service through its Web site later this month. Not to be outdone, Best Buy will also launch an iTunes-type online music store - with the ability to buy through in-store kiosks - based on the MusicNow service (formerly FullAudio). And today Comcast announced music downloads via Real Rhapsody for its 5 million broadband Internet subscribers. The Washington Post's Cynthia L. Webb writes about the online music frenzy and the resultant advertising onslaught due to the sheer number of entrants into the music download market, while Bloomberg's Holly M. Sanders offers an analysis of Walmart's imminent entry into online music, which is significant since Wal-Mart already controls 14 percent of global CD music sales. More at the New York Times (via SeattlePI).

SAD News

[Anonymous Coward]

It has been learned that Natalie Portman has died, covered in hot sticky grits at the mere age of 56. RIP Miss Portman! We will miss your skinny little Israeli ass!

Re:SAD News

[Anonymous Coward]

OOOOhhh her smothe lily white ass was so smoothe. It felt good between my teeth.

Re:SAD News

[Anonymous Coward]

newsflash: if redudancy was funny, we'd all be laughing at slashdot.

Re:SAD News

[Anonymous Coward]

newsflash: if redudancy was funny, we'd all be laughing at slashdot.

In Soviet Russia, SLASHDOT LAUGHS AT YOU! HOI!

Re:I own a Record Store

[fiftyfly]

They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?

And some people are not sure this is a troll....? Ah well, definitely an amusing troll at least.

Well, maybe the first time. I'm pretty sure I've seen this same pos at least 3 times, oops, make that 4 now.

Irony

[Ogerman]

Looks like this 'digital music' thing is starting to catch on with the bigwigs. Finally.

One problem: 'digital music' doesn't need bigwigs.

Nor do we want them. For they bring us DRM, low quality audio, inflated prices, and they still screw our favorite artists.

At least the next logical step is in place, however: Artists ditch their labels and sell directly online. Followed by: Artists forget about selling music itself because it's such cheap advertisement thanks to rapid online distribution that *everyone* now uses.

Re:Irony

[startled]

No kidding. "Finally, the big guys are getting involved!"

Awesome. Replace the guys selling interesting, smaller time music (emusic, mp3.com) with people selling the same recycled top 40 crap.

Walmart getting into online music distribution? Finally; it's been so hard to find the latest Blink 182 album around here! I rejoice!

Bleah. The only possible upside is, as you said, artists cutting out the middle men. With a dedicated enough following, it might work out. The big labels still control most of the promotional channels.

Re:Irony

[nerph]

"..because it's such cheap advertisement..."

For what? Their concerts and merchandise?

Concerts:
1. What good is global distribution for a small band that only plays small clubs locally?
2. Even for a big-name band, it's damn near impossible to organize a single large-venue concert without the backing of a major label and concert promoter. Pearl Jam tried a few years ago and couldn't pull it off.

So marketing your concerts by giving music away doesn't really help. There are some labels like Wind-Up that make their band's singles available for download, which to me has always been a great compromise.

Merchandise:
1. A band is lucky if 1% of the people who buy their albums actually buy merchandise as well. Once you start giving your music away that percentage will not scale with the number of people downloading the song (i.e. 100 x more listeners 100 x more merch sales). Band margins on merch sales is significant but is hardly enough to support the production of new songs.
2. OK, there is no #2.

The caveat to the above (and this has been speculated elsewhere), is that bands may begin to focus a lot more on singles and we may find ourselves back in the days of the 45 where bands only released singles with B-sides.

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats right. I haven't bought a CD in 5 years and I can proudly say that I have never bought a DVD ever. I did buy a CD last week directly from the artist at www.chonkland.com
He says he gives his CD's out for free at his concerts.
This is how it is being done now people!

Re:Irony

[Ogerman]

1. What good is global distribution for a small band that only plays small clubs locally?

If they're smart, they'll set their sights higher than small local clubs. Many musicians need to start thinking like entrepreneurs if they want to make a career out of their art. Then again, others play publically just for the fun of it. Some of my other engineer friends and I used to do this.

2. Even for a big-name band, it's damn near impossible to organize a single large-venue concert without the backing of a major label and concert promoter. Pearl Jam tried a few years ago and couldn't pull it off.

And this will change as the cartel weakens due to competition. Concert halls and amphitheaters will naturally want whatever bands will draw the highest ticket prices and largest audiences. It won't matter if they are big-label affiliated or not. The change won't happen overnight, but it's nearly inevitable.

Walmart will make money BECAUSE:

[takochan]

they are very very good at putting pressure on suppliers to cut prices, because they are such a big volume seller.

They know now, that without all the distribution costs of physical media, that the 90cents / track that Apple currently pays to the RIAA, can be cut down to 50 cents or less because they know this is all just pure profit for the RIAA right now. This is all fat, Walmart knows it and they have the buyer market power to make this price cut happen.

Then they will sell those tracks to us for 60 cents, undercutting Apple, and Walmart still will make money.

This is how Walmart always does it with whatever they sell. No reason it will be any different this time.

The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone wants to convert say a 30,000 song library acquired on kazaa into a legally obtained one, will Wal-Mart provide a tool to help automate the replacement process? It would be better if such a tool was free: dont want to pay too much...

Competition == Good

[Anonymous Coward]

I know Microsoft would like you to believe otherwise. But giants competing against each other is just going to lead to lower prices and better services for the end user. Once all the 80 year old grandpas at the RIAA finally realize they can make a buck by selling music online, there probably won't be as many restrictions on music as the various online sellers compete to out do each other by offering the greatest flexibility with your downloads.

So like I said, competition is good.
NVida vs. ATI (and later XGI?).
Intel vs. AMD

Now look at the other side.
Apple vs. ???
Microsoft vs. ???

Is it any wonder why Mac hardware is 5 years behind? (don't even pull the 64 bit card, even Adobe says it's a crock)

does Slashdot does down your computer, too??

[Cryofan]

Does anyone else get a massive slowdown of their computer when reading slashdot threads?

I am using XP home version and the latest Internet Explorer?

Re:does Slashdot does down your computer, too??

[syrinx]

Does anyone else get a massive slowdown of their computer when reading slashdot threads?

I am using XP home version and the latest Internet Explorer?

I'm assuming that this is a joke...

Re:does Slashdot does down your computer, too??

[Anonymous Coward]

It probably is supposed to be a joke, but it's not funny.

Re:does Slashdot does down your computer, too??

[Anonymous Coward]

i fear he's serious, slashdot is a hefty page to load on a non linux(esque) system

Re:does Slashdot does down your computer, too??

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess everyone else is going to be moronic but YES this happens to me too. I wrote CowboyNeal about it and it turns out it's something to do with the new ads.osdn.com interface... it doesn't like to have more than one connection at the same time or something!? Now i've put ads.osdn.com in my hosts file and the problem's gone.

funny wal-mart story

[llamaluvr]

So, once me and a few of my friends were walking through a wal-mart, and there was a shelf in hardware that only had a hammer on it- nothing else. So, one of my friend's was like, "Whoa! Check it out- there's just a hammer on that shelf." and an employee in the light blub section said, "Yeah, that's there for bashing your head in." So, my friend went and told customer service, and they said that there's been complaints about the light-bulb guy before. Okay, so it wasn't that great of a story. I guess you just had to be there.

Re:funny wal-mart story

[bev_tech_rob]

Damn! I wish I had mod points right now!! Funny story!! :)

Wal-Mart will be cheaper

[kilocomp]

Wal-Mart has several advantages. First it can blast out info about this service though it's retail stores. Second they will be cheaper than Apple (or else they wouldn't be entering the market), Wal-Mart has a ton of power over suppliers and can get their prices very low. Apple or any of the other services don't have the brick and motor sales has leverage.
Wal-Mart undercut Netflix's prices and they will do it to Apple.

Re:Now when the artists break from cover, thats ne

[Excen]

I for one am waiting for the day that a selection of artists such as Dre (and hence m'n'm), Madonna, George Michael, Kylie, Aphex Twin and Garth Brooks launch their own online music store.

Unfortunately, private for-profit online distribution is basically prohibited by most record contracts today. For instance, if the Olson Twins were to counter Hillary Duff's "Budding" pop career, they, most likely would be giving up the distribution rights to their music to the major label bankrolling the promos and distros. Anyhoo, it would be nice to actually know that artists are recieving cash for their creative works.

Mmmm. Hillary Duff. Almost old enough to be Fap-tastic. . .

Re:I own a Record Store

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy shit dude, you wrote that amazingly long troll and it's not even that interesting. You should go work for Hollywood writing scripts. It takes real talent to use so many words and still not make a coherant point.

mod parents up

[Anonymous Coward]

parent and grandparent should be at +5 funny :)

RE: your tagline

[Anonymous Coward]

About your tagline:

You didn't specify what gender the 'blow job giver' needs to be.

We're ready to make a deal with you regarding your karma.

- Your Local LUG Buddies.

Please

[Hobobo]

"You seem to have forgotten about the brick-and-mortar Apple Stores [apple.com] (70+ stores, with more on the way)."

Yes and I'm sure that those are perfectly comparable to Walmart. (sarcasm)

Re:Please

[Demolition]

shark72 stated that Apple does not have "a network of retail stores in which they can advertise for free". I pointed out that this assertion is incorrect. I made no statement to the effect that Walmart retail stores and Apple Stores were comparable, perfectly or otherwise.

(Actually, may I ask why you think they aren't comparable? Because of the sheer number of Walmarts vs. Apple Stores?)

D.

Re:Please

[Demolition]

I just re-read my last post. I left out a few words from the last paragraph. It should read:

Actually, may I ask why you think they aren't comparable, in terms of free advertising? Because of the sheer number of Walmarts vs. Apple Stores?

D.

Re:Please

[typobox43]

One reason why they aren't comparable is because the average person who walks into an Apple Store will be looking for something from Apple already - it's preaching to the converted. I think it goes without saying that that's not how it is at Wal-Mart.

mp3.com too

[Mister.de]

... just in my email box, and in some others too, hehe... CNET aquired MP3.com ...

Hello? Music Store for linux users?

[Anonymous Coward]

My linux can only play circa 1996 .vox and .mid files. Where can i buy .vox garth brook music?

OGG is lossy

[Anonymous Coward]

We only accept SHN format!!

Re:OGG is lossy

[nmg]

SHN is not Free enough, idiot. FLAC Is the key. Also, I will not buy music if any corporation at all is in any way involved in this, because all corporations are evil.

censored music

[austad]

With all the talk of censored music at Walmart, it might help to understand a bit about the company. They are based in Bentonville, GA. A hellhole of a place, quite a ways from a major city. Everyone in the town works for Walmart. As far as I know, everything there is owned by walmart. Gas stations, food, and even (surpise) walmart itself. Bentonville is in a dry county. That means that it's illegal to serve, sell, or buy booze in the county. People there apparently have a real problem with alcohol, think it's the devil. A friend of a friend took a consulting job there about a year ago. She was in another county at a bar and someone that worked with her saw her drinking a beer. She was fired the following monday.

At my previous job, I had to deal with walmart as a client. They are a bunch of Nazis. They are huge, and many companies depend on them to survive, and walmart knows it. That's why they can get away with doing almost anything they want. 70% of all companies that do business with walmart either go bankrupt or get purchased by walmart.

Re:censored music

[milatchi]

Bentonville Arkansas and yeah I heard it was desolete also. I think WAL*MART was about providing convenience early onbut when Sam Walton (founder and CEO) died it was taken over by a bunch of greedy-ass bastards that just want money!

Re:censored music

[shark72]

I was just there last week and Bentonville isn't dry any more. The change apparently happened in the past few months.

Re:censored music

[Hobbex]

I think WAL*MART was about providing convenience early onbut when Sam Walton (founder and CEO) died it was taken over by a bunch of greedy-ass bastards that just want money!

Read... Atlas... Shrugged... NOW!

Re:censored music

[Zak3056]

That's why they can get away with doing almost anything they want. 70% of all companies that do business with walmart either go bankrupt or get purchased by walmart.

If that's true, those companies have poor management and SHOULD go under. Sears used to do the same thing--give a huge contract to a small manufacturer with favorable terms, get them hooked on Sears' business until it became THE core customer (think 90-100% of your bookings being a single customer) and then when the contract was up, offer FAR less favorable terms, to the point of break-even or even a loss.

ANYBODY who bases their business on a single customer will eventually face the above, and any "manager" that doesn't know that deserves what he gets.

Re:censored music

[pmz]

many companies depend on them to survive, and walmart knows it.

Just say "no."

Seriously, businesses who get those big dollar signs in their eyes and become blind to reason are ripe for natural selection. This is how it always has been and always will be.

Re:censored music

[Anonymous Coward]

Selfishness is good! Ignorance is strength! Compassion is cowardice! War is peace!

Re:censored music

[h3athrow]

Fast Company just published an article about how Wal-Mart affects the suppliers it works with. Might be a useful read as context. (Full disclosure: I work as Web editor for Fast Company.)

Re:censored music

[illumin8]

They are based in Bentonville, GA. A hellhole of a place, quite a ways from a major city.

You mean Bentonville, ARKANSAS. It's still a hellhole of a place though. Everything else you said was true.

Believe me folks, there is a good reason why a number of cities in California are passing laws banning Walmart from opening stores. The fact is, Walmart strongarms their vendors into giving them prices that are unrealistic in order to get costs down. They move into small towns and undercut the local mom-and-pop shops, putting them out of business. Then, after there is no competition left, they jack up the prices and rape their customers.

There is nothing technically illegal about what they are doing (other than hiring illegals to clean their stores at night, but hey, we're not responsible, we had contractors that did a bad thing), but it sure ought to be illegal. It's at the very least immoral and unethical, and I can't figure out for the life of me why all the right-wing religions fanatics won't sell rated R movies that haven't been edited, but they'll happily fuck an entire Anytown, USA out of their hard-earned money.

Walmart is a cancer on America, and it needs to be shut down and put out of business.

Re:censored music

[Rupert]

Bentonville is in Arkansas.

Everything else he says is true. The part where you can only work at WalMart HQ if you are married to your cousin is apocryphal.

Re:censored music

[chundo]

Can't find the quote's source at the moment:

"The second worst business decision a company can make is to sign a contract with Wal-Mart. The worst business decision? To NOT sign a contract with Wal-Mart."

They're an instant national market for your products. They provide exposure small companies can't get on their own. For a struggling small business, it's not as clear-cut as just saying "no".

-j

Walmart is sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

The Walmart is sucks big time. Why this Walmart sell the MP3 and put many hard worker to the street with no money? Low price come from wallet of friend, hard worker. All music came from China soon. It is terrible if you heard it lately.

heng

Heh

[nate nice]

Like people who go to Wal-Mart know what the internet is.

You like the Chinese music?

[Anonymous Coward]

Walmart buy from China, music too. You like sucky music of Chinese factory? Good reason why only 15 cent.

heng

Bingo

[SethJohnson]

Great example. And that was the almighty Nirvana that bowed to this pressure. It's expensive for a record label to release multiple versions of the same album. The Walmart version and the street version.

For a less powerful band.. as in any small band just signed onto a major.. it's not going to be such a nice compromise. It'll be more like, "Hey guys. Nice work in the studio. Uhhh.. gotta do some post-production on your song 'Artificial Life'.. Walmart thinks it is too critical of consumerism. They are responsible for a million cd sales a day. We gotta do what they say or your CD won't be carried in 32,000 stores across the country."

So don't think Walmart and Blockbuster aren't having an impact on what you see and hear.

Re:Bingo

[nemesisj]

So what you're saying is, it's not expensive to release multiple versions, since the sales impact is so large.

Ahh, you've got to love circular reasoning.

Re:Bingo

[SethJohnson]

No. I'm saying that they only release one version. The Walmart-approved version.

I wasn't saying this hypothetical band would sell one million CDs a day at Walmart. I was saying Walmart itself sells perhaps a million discs a day across its 32,000 stores. Both these figures (number of discs and stores) are entirely made up for the purpose of this illustration. Whatever the real numbers are, they're big and they give Walmart a lot of leverage.

Collecting spam for my bayesian filter.

wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

#1 retailer on the planet!

Re:wrong

[leerpm]

Yep. According to the Fortune 500, only one other company makes more sales than they do. Exxon Mobil.

Re:wrong

[mduell]

If you look at the 2003 sales numbers instead of 2001, you'll see that Wal-Mart now outsells ExxonMobil.

Doomed to fail, unless

[Lord Kano]

Walmart changes their policy about censored music as it relates to their online store.

If I'm going to D/L a Ludacris track, I'm not going to pay Walmart for "Move _____!" when I could use Kazaa and hear "Move Bitch!" for free.

Elijah Muhammad once compared a glass of water tainted with ink to a glass of pure water in the following manner; Here is a glass, dirty. The water, foul. You offer this to the people, they have no choice, they'll drink it if they're thirsty. You offer them this glass, they'll make their own decision. They will choose the pure vessel.

This is what Walmart overlooks if they try to bring to market their adulterated selection of music.

LK

Re:Doomed to fail, unless

[bigkahunafish]

I used to think people would only drink the pure water if people enlightened them to the fact that the other water was tainted

However, this is not always the case, otherwise people would see that Walmart only expands into markets to control and dominate them.

I used to believe if i told people about this, they would choose against Walmart.

I was mistaken.

Its sad when you're right and no one will listen to you.

Re:Doomed to fail, unless

[Lord Kano]

However, this is not always the case, otherwise people would see that Walmart only expands into markets to control and dominate them.

I'm sorry, but I don't see it that way. Walmart is a business, they enter a market to make money. If you can make more money by dominating that market, that's what they're supposed to do.

Aside from their piss poor music selection, I don't have a problem with Walmart. You can buy a shotgun, a ski mask, and 5 quarts of motor oil all under one roof.

LK

Re:Doomed to fail, unless

[TPFH]

I used to believe if i told people about this, they would choose against Walmart.

I was mistaken.

This is getting off-topic, and I'm also agreeing with you but this is a relatively old discussion anyway.....

How many people would drink Cocacola (or other soda) rather than fresh clean water? (Maybe not pure water, because distilled water does taste funny.)

Anyway, just something that crossed my mind.

(This post brought to you by: Random Posting through meta-moderation.)

I use Walmart all the time. Bitches.

[teamhasnoi]

The have a 'Photo Center' where you upload (up to) 2meg .tifs or .jpgs. Then you can order prints from 4x6 up to 8x10 or somesuch. You can then have the prints delivered to your house, or free to any walmart - it takes about 3 days.

As I have a walmart less than 3 blocks from my house, I pick them up there.

When this system works, it kicks ass. It's cheap (26 cents), they can handle ass-loads of volume (I've ordered 300+ prints), consistent (color is usually pretty damn close to what I send them), fast (store the pictures on their servers for repeat prints), and free shipping.

When this system doesn't work, I think about killing every walmart employee I see. In a small town, that's everybody. :(

They used to only support IE, and some ass-tacular version of netscape. That hasn't gotten much better. (I use a mac for this). Their javascript is buggy. They make me go through 20 screens even though I do the same thing *every time*. Their servers are slow during the day, sometimes to the point of unusable. I get a million timeouts on the secure side, because they can't handle the load.

Best of all, they had an issue where they 'lost' my pictures, and replaced them with some booger-eatin', twelve-sandwich makin', camero-rustin', trailer-house dentist's nightmare's people's photos.

I took screen caps of all the good ones. I was surprised they could afford a camera. I really will have to post a link to them.

Walmart did fix this, but only after I went through email hell (happy obvious taglines on every email = CSR death!).

The photo center has improved, but having used it for more than a year, any music service is going to suck the big musical nuts in the sky for awhile.

They'll compete on price like they always do, work out the kinks, and have a pretty bland selection.

w00t - more volume, less choice.

Re:I use Walmart all the time. Bitches.

[Neop2Lemus]

Post the pics please!

Goddamn it slashdot!

[crapulent]

Would you please quit linking to the NY Post as a "news source"? The last time this happened was when the NY Post was claiming that McDonalds would be giving away a billion iTunes songs... which turned out to be completely untrue, an unfounded rumour.

For the love of god, stop linking to tabloids as news! If it's reported somewhere respectable then fine, but it's not a story until you've got more than this pathetic 200 word paragraph from some grocery store checkout RAG.

Re:Goddamn it slashdot!

[0xA]

Bah, not just that...

Both stories are by THE SAME GUY!

Re:Censored. They _do_ censor stuff

[modder]

They don't censor stuff

Dire Straits "greatest hits", the song "Money for Nothing" had the entire verse about "That little faggot has his own jet airplane...." completely cut from the song.

Are they worried gay people wil buy this and be offended? Or that impressionable youth more prone to buying cop killing gangsta and gay hating gangsta rap will stumble across a Dire Straits album and decide to buy it because Dire Straits is what all the kids listen to these days?

Re: your tagline

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... If you're not looking down, a mouth is a mouth is a mouth... Some of you people get way too hung up over sexuality issues.

- Your Local Redneck Affiliate.

Women of Wal-Mart

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the women of wal-mart? Women of Wal-Mart (not work safe).

I can't believe no one mentioned it in the above comments.

What about the women?

[GraWil]

So what do you suppose the women of Wal-Mart's music store will look like?

Good news for Linux users!

[ajs318]

Haven't Wal*Mart, in the past, sold PCs with Linux pre-installed? If they want to run an online music store, they will have to make it work with PCs sold in the real life store -- which basically means it's going to have to be a penguin-friendly system! Let's hope it's Ogg Vorbis or another open standard :-) It shouldn't be too hard for someone to write an Apache plugin that does on-the-fly encryption against a public key sent in a cookie, and that would work well enough ..... the worst abuses I can think of would be to request a file which would end up being totally unreadable, as there would be no suitable decryption key; or to broadcast a public key to someone you didn't want knowing it, but a public key by itself is pretty useless.

On the other hand, given that large corporations often have one department at odds with another, it's possible that whoeaver dreamt up the online music idea has no idea that Wal*Mart have actually sold Linux PCs. What never ceases to amazes me is that a business can get that close to total disintegration and yet not only muddle through, but actually make a profit! Must say something about the human survival instinct, I guess.

As to the munging of music, I hadn't heard of any stores in this country having special cleaned-up CDs, though some of the local radio stations play edited versions. So do the satellite TV music stations - but usually only in the daytime. I guess I will have to check out the CDs in my local ASDA {now pwned by Wal*Mart}.

shameless self promotion: www.hearsaymusic.ca

[warren69]

Hey,

The website http://www.hearsaymusic.ca is currently recruiting Indepedent Canadian Artists wanting to sell their music online in mp3 format (as well as CDs, etc.). Artists interested should e-mail contact@hearsaymusic.ca for more info.

Cheers,
Warren

ps. ogg to come later

Re:shameless self promotion: www.hearsaymusic.ca

[Fubar411]

How many times can you possibly listen to "Oh Canada" and the Mackenzi Brothers Christmas Album?

You are technically correct, but...

[Otto]

They don't censor stuff, they just refuse to carry it.

While you're technically correct in that Wal-Mart itself does not rework albums to add bleeps and adjust album art and such, the refusal to carry such albums combined with Wal-Mart's market leverage has the same impact as if they did.

Like someone said above, Wal-Mart does 14% of the music sales across the country. That's a hell of a lot of selling power. The upshot of this is that the labels created censored versions of the works specifically so Wal-Mart will carry them.

For some smaller bands, this equates to there only being a censored version of the work available. It's not worth the extra expense for the label to create two versions if they don't expect to make enough sales of the uncensored one, and so the censored one is all that's created.

So while Wal-Mart doesn't have a group of censors changing the music, they do have a direct impact on the music that is released. That's the problem a lot of people have with Wal-Mart when it comes to music. No company should have that kind of market leverage and be able to impact culture in that way. It's downright irresponsible of Wal-Mart to use its market leverage in the way that they use it, really.

indeed[nt]

[themusicgod1]

i was thinking the exact same thing.

Walmart making the RIAA it's bitch...

[themusicgod1]

i don't know whether to be giddy or afraid.

Re:How will it make money? Doesnt Have to...

[bigkahunafish]

Walmart, the biggest and most evil corporation of the world (I'm sorry guys, but M$ has nothing on these guys) is expanding its markets.

How will it make money? It doesnt have to.

huh? you say... well walmart is not about profit whenever it expands into a market. Walmart instead is about lowering prices to an extent that destroys competition, like local business.

With online music, they are looking to expand their control of humanity, by garnering the business of music lovers, and taking from those who use iTunes and Napster (& possibly destroying them.)This is just like their expansion into the grocery market, lowering prices, and destroying local grocerys (it happens, i.e. Indianapolis).

Walmart will never stop until it achieves world domination.

This is stupid...

[muffen]

Looks like this 'digital music' thing is starting to catch on with the bigwigs. Finally.

I think this is stupid. First we have no digital music, then Apple starts a site that sells millions of songs in the States alone, and now everyone wants to do it.
It's not like we've been saying: "Give us a legal alternative" for like what, three years?

If I was to buy music online (still no resonable legal alternatives in Europe), I would NEVER buy it from some stupid company who's doing it just cause other people are making money off it, and they want some of that money.

I'm also wondering how they are going to enforce agerestrictions. I believe that in some English speaking countries (correct me if I'm wrong here) they won't sell music containing vulgar language to kids? Most kids don't own creditcards, so most probably the songs are being bought using their parents creditcards. The parents most probably have no clue what type of music the kid is DLing, so how will the age be checked.
It isn't so bad with music, but once we get legal movie downloading (yeah yeah, I know, it'll take another 100 years), how will age restrictions be enforced?

the only thing good about Wal-mart is...

[Anonymous Coward]

www.playboy.com/sex/features/sexatwalmart/

M$ fights back

[bigkahunafish]

Its just M$ working against /. because they finally found out that Billy is portrayed as a borg and they also finally figured out that thats a bad thing.

I won't pay for music

[Phoenix666]

until the RIAA is dead, dead, dead. How long have we been agitating on this site against their cartel, and now everyone is falling over themselves to give them money because they're beginning to sell things online? And here after a story yesterday about how the *AA's want to put you in prison for filesharing!

Good god, is there any backbone in this crowd at all, or are we just as much the sheep that we often accuse the general public of being?

Lower price - nah, Censoring, maybe

[Shivetya]

Nah, I have yet to find a local record store, except those dealing with used records, who are lower priced than Wal-Mart.

As for censoring, it might not be Wal-Mart that does it directly, but they do not sell the same versions of the CDs that other retailers do.

Their version of Liz Phair's newest CD is labeled as "edited". I guess it would be interesting to see just what kind of editing that was done.

I would suspect the F-word was taken out of her current playing single, but that is also editted out on local top 40 stations.

If you match up their versions with radio versions I wonder how different they really are? Are they upholding their own standards or broadcast standards?

Wal-Mart did a good job as marketing themselves as family-friendly. That is nothing to hold against them. It is a business choice.

Liz Phair CD at Wal-Mart link.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp? cat=411 8&dept=4104&product_id=2276667&path=0:4104:4118:50 96:40235

For a behind-the-scenes look at Wal-Mart

[MrPoopyPants]

I recommend that everybody read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. The author basically went undercover in several entry-level jobs (including Wal-Mart, house cleaning, and hotel housekeeping) to see if she could make ends meet.

Wal-Mart would actually stand up to the RIAA

[Anita Coney]

I recently read an article that stated that all US music sales are dwarfed by just the sales of Wal-Mart by 20 times.

Considering the size of Wal-Mart, and considering that it never pays wholesale for anything, I'd be VERY worried if I were the RIAA. They're about to be bulldozed.

wal-mart is retail

[mblase]

they are very very good at putting pressure on suppliers to cut prices, because they are such a big volume seller.

In their retail outlets, yes. But I've never heard anything to indicate that wal-mart.com is anywhere near as successful. Since they're trying to sell music downloads, not music CDs, then unless they're proposing in-store kiosks with CD burners they'll have some trouble breaking in.

Software? Wal-Mart? No thanks.

[slyckshoes]

Apple has experience writing Operating Systems and other various software. They have experience dealing with artist type folks (musicians, graphic artists, etc) and they also deal with hard core nerds. They have a darn good idea of what to put in an online music store and how to design/code it for scalability, high-availability, and etc. They also make hardware, which gives them another benefit and even more credibility in my book.

What does Wal-Mart have experience with? They make flyers. And cheesy commercials. I imagine they'll hire a team to build it for them, but I'm just not convinced that someone who has little experience with software can make a music store that has the things I want. I may try it out, but Apple has my loyalty for being the first to market and doing it well.

I hope this move to online music stores...

[Slashdot Junky]

I hope this move to online music stores does not eventually end CD sales. This service should remain offered alongside physical CDs. Even though much of the music I listen to while at my PC is ripped from my own CDs, I do listen to music elsewhere a lot. My car and stereo will not play anything but CDs.

-CRSAuction

Re:I hope this move to online music stores...

[Slashdot Junky]

Yes, I signed the parent post incorrectly.

-Slashdot Junky(AKA CRSAuction)

Re:I own a Record Store

[Anonymous Coward]

> store, I overheard a teenage patron talking to > his friend.

> "Dude, I'm going to put this CD on the Internet > right away."

> "Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic], you'll >get lots of respect."

Just then, Zack and Slater came in to tell us about the results of the twist contest at Bayside!

Seriously dude, that's shitty dialogue even by Saturday morning teen-soap standards. If you can't do any better than that, then maybe you should find a new line of work furiously masturbating to hentai or something.

How they'll profit

[Anonymous Codger]

1. Sell only music made in China.
2. Use illegal aliens to keep the database clean.
3. ????
4. Profit!

RIAA

[brsmith4]

I think the RIAA is putting all of these companies up to this. It's a reasonable assertion given that every song that you buy from these guys will likely be in a database somewhere for them to look at when they subpeona you for having "illegal" copies. They will be able to say what you are supposed to have. Anything extra will be held against you. Just my 2 cents.

Re:Lower price - nah, Censoring, maybe

[Greg W.]

Their version of Liz Phair's newest CD is labeled as "edited". I guess it would be interesting to see just what kind of editing that was done. I would suspect the F-word was taken out of her current playing single, but that is also editted out on local top 40 stations.

I'd be very interested in finding out what they did to the song "Hot White Cum" on that album. But not interested enough to pay them money to find out, of course.... (And before anyone jumps up on their soapbox: yes, I did buy a legitimate copy of the CD. It's one of the last non-used RIAA CDs I've ever purchased.)

Good. Finally ...

[Vedanti]

Finally we will have more online music stores than presidential hopefuls.

The comparison is more than just for fun. Finally there will be only two or three large music stores left. That is no reason for all not to try and lose some money.

Wal-Mart should offer instore access...

[Anita Coney]

You should be able to walk into Wal-Mart, request the songs you want, and have them burn them for you right there. For the millions of computer newbies out there, it'd do great.

FLAC!

[joeljkp]

How about FLAC (or at least WMA lossless)? If I'm going to buy some music, I want the same quality I could get from the store. I don't think I'll invest in any kind of online music scheme if I'm paying for lossy-compressed files.

Re:I own a Record Store

[Anonymous Coward]

YHBT. That's the tenth time the same I own a Record Store lament has been posted by yet another different person.

I AM NOT JOKING!!

[Cryofan]

I have a fairly powerful PC (512M DDR RAM and this is like a 1.6 GHZ CPU) using dialup.

What happens is that once I begin reading a ./ thread (e.g., "Walmart now selling music online" etc.), CPU usages moves slowly toward 100%.

ALso, at the same time, the HTTP transactions between all the open Internet Explorer windows will cease (and I typically have as many as 6-12 other windows open reading several other websites simultaneously). For example, when I began reading this particular thread I had several other websites open reading news, politics, etc. And I can do this all day, switching between a dozen or more websites, and while a page is loading, I will be reading another page I have already downloaded.

And it works fine. I have a 56K dialup on mylinuxisp.com here in Houston ($10, great service, highly recommended). Right now I am using a good winmoden (Supra). But sometimes I use an external modem (same problem using that modem).

But when I try to read slashdot threads, the HTTP transactions activity (as evidenced by two the little CRT emblems that make up the HTTP/modem status activity indication in the botton right corner of the screen on the status bar) slow down to nothing, and CPU usage moves to near 100%.

THe only cure is to close group (close all open IE windows), and open up all new windows, and then pick up the pages I was reading using the History tabs.

I do a LOT of websurfing. ANd I read my huge webpages during the day. But no other web pages seem to cause this problem.

Re:I own a Record Store

[Greg W.]

Two days ago I had moderator points. I did not use them. Now I do not have them.

Here's my +1 for your post.

Re:I own a Record Store (Score:1, Insightful)
by Aliencow (653119)
You don't sell "Sick Marilyn Manson" ?
What's so sick about him?
The fact he knows how to market the fuck out of his stuff ?
Cop killer rap... Rap lyrics ever killed anyone? I know 50 cent fucking annoys me but I haven't died *yet*.
See guys, when you don't let kids play dodgeball cause it's bad for their self-esteem they turn into Christian music store owners.

Re:Software? Wal-Mart? No thanks.

[Dixie_Flatline]

I may be off the mark here, but I seem to recall that they wanted to sell a game that would appeal to the average guy that walked into a Wal-Mart and wanted to buy a computer game. Next thing you know, Deer Hunter is a huge seller.

Wal-Mart will manage. They've got a lot of money to pay someone to write the software for them.

I'll never go anywhere near their stores, online or otherwise. Until they are literally the last store on earth where I can get what I want, I'll go somewhere else and pay more. Their business practices are even more heinous than Microsoft's.

2 + 2 = you work for the RIAA

[Anonymous Coward]

The story is too stupid.

I, for one....

[44BSD]

I hate Walmart. Hate Hate Hate.

Nonetheless, if they do get involved, this *might* be a good thing, utimately.

See, Walmart is all about keeping costs down thru cutting out as many middlemen as possible, standardizing as much of their supply chain as possible, and automation. There have been many stories in the business and popular press about Walmart requiring their suppliers to adopt certain computerized schemes, such as RFID, so that Walmart can move/track inventory more cheaply.

Well, if Walmart is successful in automating the supply chain running from musician to music marketplace, then all the pieces will be in place for some enterprising competitor to "leverage" their work. I can see how Walmart, if they are smart, might at first operate a closed market -- if you want music they sell, you need to be a member, etc. Like Sam's (Yecccch!) Club. Then they continue to run all the back-end stuff, and publish a Web Services API. Now, other storefronts can use their back-end to make tunes available. THEN, they cook up a means by which independent artists can add to the inventory, and in effect become a clearing house for musicians and music buyers (for a piece of the action, of course). The final stage is when this clearing-house function gets divorced from Walmart. That's when the good part finally arrives.

This is terrific!!!

[Craig3010]

Now EVERYONE can buy Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits online!!!

Lies and Trickery!

[RalphBNumbers]

They only have the 'Clean' version of the latest Outkast album. Which also has the #1 selling song on iTMS right now.

They have the uncensored version of that Outcast album.
It's right here.

This isn't Censorship

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't censorship. Wal-Mart cannot and does not force people to censor their works. Wal-Mart is a company. A company with a 'family store' image they want to protect. You don't expect a christian bookstore to carry dildo's do you?

Wal-Mart does this for 3 reasons.

1. If you don't carry parental advisory material, the clean-cuts, the religious fanatics, and the weary moms and dads will still shop there.... and so will everyone else. (argue with me, the 5 kids just split $100 billion dollars when Sam Walton died... EVERYONE shops there.. they're not losing any business because they sell Nirvana singing "Waif Me"). *

*if this doesn't apply to you, market studies have shown... you don't matter.

2. If they put it in, they run the risk of losing their "family" image, and losing the above stated 'righteous' people who shop there.

3. It saves time. They don't have to deal with mom phoning up to cuss them out for allowing her to buy her 10 yr old son an Eminem CD. They don't have to handle the calls threatening a lawsuit because they didn't realize their daughter would use the Harry Potter broom as a vibrator. It just saves less hassle. For a company that has a lawsuit filed against them once per hour (go on, fact check, I'm not exaggerating), less hassle has a market value of it's own.

Granted, an artist can't sell certain things through Wal-Mart. That's their problem, not Wal-Mart's. Wal-Mart has no worldwide obligation to further the careers of artists.

I shop elsewhere for this type of merchandise, and I suggest you do too.

I fully support freedom of speech. I fully support uncensored works. I also realize Wal-Mart is not the problem. Fix the closed-minded masses so they won't freak with they hear the word fuck, and Wal-Mart will sell them anything.


Apologies to anyone in this thread who didn't whine and complain that those censoring wally people are devils... they are devils, but for other reasons...

Who the heck cares

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering that Walmart doesn't even have a CANADIAN website for normal buisness I wouldn't put too much stock into them selling songs online. Besides, why the heck should I care if they have so little regard for me...

The RIAA is NOT afraid of Walmart

[NaugaHunter]

Let's say the RIAA bulks at Walmart's demands. What are they going to do? Remove all music from their stores? Who cares? There are dozens of other places to buy music, from stores and online.

The RIAA has no real incentive to give them much of a better deal than they give anyone else, as far as I can see. They already have half a dozen online stores essentially giving them money for nothing. If they give Walmart an obviously better deal the rest will want it too.

Walmart has power - if you want your toys sold there, you have to give in. If you want your frozen pizzas sold there, you have to give in. But if you are the only source of something you have just as much, if not more, power.

Downloads in-store

[WindBourne]

It will be interesting to see if they provide wireless downloads at the store. Bring in your laptop or zaurus and download the music for slightly less than on-line (you are in the store and will likely buy other things).

Love My Wal-Mart

[zorcon]

In an attempt to make their online music store more appealing to customers of their brick and mortar stores, Wal-Mart's cart&checkout system will one up Apples One-Click transaction by featuring a digital cashier without a full set of teeth!

Now there's innovation baby! Of course I'm sure someone already has the patent and lawsuits will be inevitable.

Consistency in product source

[Chroneos]

I wonder if the music will be produced in third-world or distant countries by poor underpaid workers.

(Sorry, I just HAD to...)

But what about sound quality?

[deque_alpha]

I consider myself something of an audiophile, and have wondered about this shift to downloading music for some time. Do any of these services offer files that sound as good as CDs? Not _nearly_ as good, but _as good_. I find that even high bitrate .ogg and .mp3 files have perceptible degradation on my mediocre equipment. How do Apple's aac files stack up? As (if) these services become more prevelant, it seems likely that we will be taking steps back in terms of sound quality and fidelity, as well as fair use. Do any of you who have used these services have comments on the quality?

I have never wanted someone to die more

[Anonymous Coward]

than I want you to right now. The intense desire for your painful demise is tearing at my very being. If I ever meet you in person I will murder you, then murder your wife for marrying an absolute moron like you, then murder your kids so your genetic material is cleansed from the earth, then murder your dog for crapping on my lawn, then murder your parents for the inconvience they caused me, then I will burn all your bodies, piss on the ashes, bury them in the woods and salt the earth so nothing will ever grow there and erect a flaming crucifix to mark the spot of your soiled being. I will then conduct a Wiccan voodoo ritual to seal the deal with Lucifer Himself that your souls will rot eternally in the dankest pit of the Seventh Layer of Hell in puddles of the molton feces of single mothers and homosexuals.

FUCK
YOU

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

Will it be staffed by people making ~$2/hour?

Look for Pearl Jam to pioneer this!

[JZ_o8]

Pearl Jam has finally fulfilled their 10-year contract with Sony Epic Records. They have yet to sign with another label and seem to be testing the waters for the possibility of not signing at all. Their first independent recording is a single, Man of the Hour for the upcoming Burton flick, Big Fish , which is available for purchase only directly from the band. They have also really embraced the iTunes Music Store. Granted the releases on this page are Sony releases, but it seems likely they will follow suit with their own agreement on their next album. Take a look at their implementation: here

Re:What's the smell?

[CharterTerminal]

Shopping at their online store just won't be the same. Not unless their website has embedded MIDI files of screaming children, anyway.

I'm not sure how they could virtually recreate the "Every aisle crammed full of carts and slow people so you can't get past" experience. A good website design team should be able to help them with that, though.

Microsoft is to Wallmart as Software is to ______.

[TempusMagus]

Just so it gets said. Walmart is right up there with Microsoft - they just sell the stuff people run on not what computers run on.

Not censored at wal mart

[Anonymous Coward]

What is all of the FUD about censorship by Wal-Mart?

It is a business which can choose what products to stock and which products to not stock. No one can force the company to carry music it does not want to.

Wal-Mart is expressing its free speech. /. readers should apply the same standards to those whom they disagree with also.

sigh

[mabu]

With my luck, the guy in the process queue prior to me will insist on writing a check for $1.79.

Primitive Earthlings

[Anonymous Coward]

When will you discover the superior audio qualities of vinyl? - Third Rock From The Sun

I heard that...

[Joey7F]

Starbucks and Panera Bread are going to announce a similar venture next week.

--Joey

Lossless store?

[DaCool42]

Is anyone aware of an online music store service that offers files in lossless compression?