Slashdot Mirror
Wal-Mart Music Download Service Launches
nns6561 writes "Wal-Mart launched their music download service today. They are providing wma files for 88 cents. I was able to download and play the test file with MPlayer and Linux. Finally, a music service for us geeks." While it may be only another online music seller, I'd hazard a guess that Wal-Mart has the name recognition to be the most prevalent music download service, especially among the tech-unsavvy.
For joe mullet that lives in a small town that doesn't have indie music stores and such, wall-mart is often the place when he first discovers music (at age 11 or whatever). If all they carry is a "weeded out" selection, it could affect his tastes for years and reduce his horizons quite a bit.
See, the problem here, is that you are clearly and elitist asshole - at least that is how your post places you.
"Joe Mullet" is a racial slur against what you clearly consider "small town" ignorant trash.
It seems to me that you are most upset that people support Wal-Mart's censorship. The fact is that Wal-Mart recognizes that parents have an interest in censoring what their children hear. This is the market that Wal-Mart is targetting. The parents of "Joe Mullet" who is an 11 old have taken an interest in his upbringing and have decided that Wal-Mart can effectively censor what their child hears. It seems clear that you hate that prospect. You want him to be able to "expand his horizons" despite his parents wishes. You think he should have access to any type of vile, violent, brash, foul, obscene, and damn to anyone who gets in the way of that.
Well here is a news flash: individuals trust Wal-Mart to censor the unabridged crap that most record labels attempt to sell. Parents trust Wal-Mart to filter the bile that is marketed to their kids.
And YES, it does pressure artists to conform. That's the whole point. That's their stated goal. You want to be sold at Wal-Mart? Meet these parameters. Just like towels, just like bannana's, just like motor oil.
So get over it. People are all for it. Previewing and approving music before letting "Joe Mullet" 11-year old buy it is time consuming, expensive, and fraught with omissions and errors. Wal-mart will do it, and Americans are happy to let them.
Get off your high-culture elitist racist horse.
>1. AMERICAN WAL-MART EMPLOYEES ARE EXPLOITED:
Impossible. WalMart does not force employees to work there. Employees' only compulsions to work there are their own personal preferences.
>2. WAL-MART'S LOW PRICES ARE THE RESULT OF HUMAN MISERY:
Wal-Mart's low prices sustain development in third world countries. Without Wal-Mart many Chinese would die. You prefer this option?
>3. WAL-MART FORCES ITS UNETHICAL PRACTICES ON ITS 65,000 SUPPLIERS:
I thought Wal-Mart didn't sell weapons. Exactly how is this force acting on them? Is this like the Luke Skywalker style force? Oh, wait, you mean it's the "market economics" force. Hmmm. Do you like the option of shopping where you like? Yeah? But you're selfish and refuse to extend that right to Wal-Mart? How hypocritical.
>4. WAL-MART DESTROYS LOCAL COMMUNITIES:
LOL. As a small business, Wal-Mart has done one major thing: Forced me to serve customers better than them. This is something you don't agree with? Shame on you.
>5. WAL-MART IS NOT ACCOUNTABLE:
They fired their accountants?
Oh, wait, you mean they don't give a shit about anything but themselves. Well, as you can see from #3, neither do you. So I can safely ignore this one.
>I researched this Spring '03, so all facts are current as of Fall '02 - Spring '03:
You need to work harder. Your points are all so easy to refute.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
"Full-Time" (actually 28 hours/week) employees only gross $11,000 a year, on average.
Assuming they work 52 weeks a year, that comes out to about $7.55/hour, which is well above minimum wage, for menial labor. Working at wal-mart isn't exactly skillful work.
People aren't forced to work at wal-mart, there are alternatives. Wal-mart is one of the nation's largest employers, if not THE largest. If something is going on there that's illegal, there are plenty of people watching.
It's called capitalism people. Wal-mart offers cheap things, and gets cheap labor. So what if it uses factories in china. The chinese people are employed by them, so it helps them out.
The media won't report negatively about Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart would pull its huge advertising budget.
Utter bullshit. Walmart was all over the media for using illegal immigrant workers. Illegal immigrants shouldn't be in our country in the first place, so anyone who hires them should be punished. That goes for meat-packing plants as well.
The parent thread is an anti-capitalist troll. Its so easy to pick on the big bad walmarts of the world.
[sarcasm]Yep, they're successful, but they must have gotten that way by cheating someone out of something.[/sarcasm]
Your missing the point jackass. No, people cannot buy at smaller stores, as you so smugly put it, because Walmart puts them out of fucking business. They manhandle all of their suppliers just like Microshaft bullies their vendors. In a true free market economy some of your points might be valid, but this is not a free market, it is one designed to make the rich richer and to secure market dominance regardless of the merits of the product or service. According to recent research by an independent University, for every 100 jobs that Walmart creates in a community, they eliminate 150. The problem is that too many consumers are just as fucking greedy as the major corporations and will sell their mother to save a few bucks on laundry detergent. Walmart treats their employees like shit and every time you shop there, you are telling them that every fucked up thing they do is OK. Just so long as you save 50 cents on your deodorant. Its kind of like continuing to buy M$ products even though they are convicted criminals who have not changed their ways. But keep on telling yourself its OK to shop at Walmart, none of this stuff really matters right? How about we all stop shopping at Walmart? Do a little research to find out why: http://www.workingforchange.com/action_center.cfm? itemid=16042
I certainly don't shop there and I won't accept any gifts that were purchased there. You should do the same:
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition. cfm?itemid=16041&ms=mmo001
every time a republican dies a queer angel gets his wings
Great, more from those zero population growth, WTO protesting hippies.
Let's pretend for a moment when you say "girl" you mean "woman" and by that you mean "person old enough to enter into contractual agreements, and to consent to sex."
what exactly would be wrong with that, then? You'd make her an offer - XX amount of money for XX amount of service. If the offer doesn't seem fair to her, she'll decline.
You could argue the poverty she lives in makes XX too appealing an offer for her to reasonably approve, even if noone in a developed area would agree to the same. But what's wrong with giving this woman the CHOICE? Isn't it better to give a person a choice between the absolute shit life of complete poverty and the nearly absolute shit life of menial pay for hard work?
What you forget about China is that the VCRs, stereos, laptops, cellphones and other goodies they make are only for Western consumers. Chinese people are lucky if they get a mono MW radio, powered by leaky Zn-C batteries that last a few hours, and worse-built than the stuff we get.
The working conditions in China and other countries would be totally unacceptable in this country or the USA, for example, and I for one would like to know why anyone is allowed to import goods where the conditions of manufacture do not conform to the prevailing laws in the destination country.
In fact, I think I will be contacting my MEP about this issue next year.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
You can always spot a bleeding heart liberal. They have no understanding of economics and they always want to give away someone else's money. How much money have you donated to the federal government? If you haven't voluntarily given anything then shut your trap. There's nothing keeping Democrats from writing checks out to the government for their "fair share".
Not sure why I "owe" them anything. I joined the Marines to pay for my college so I could get into the middle class. Both of my parents worked at Wal-mart when I was young (and they both still do.) They aren't getting rich but they are doing fine. Also, if Wal-mart pays the employees more what do you think will happen to prices? Let me explain something to you. When costs go up so do prices. Where do people with little incomes shop? Wal-mart that's where. So as prices go up at Wal-mart they go up everywhere. And as prices move up so do wages everywhere else. In a free society people are paid what their services are worth. When you try to artificially inflate that then it raises the bar for everyone and so you're back to where you started.