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Wal-Mart Relaunches Online Music Store
ack154 writes "The latest competitor in the paid music download business will now open its 'doors,' as Walmart begins selling songs at 88 cents online. It had recently finished a three month testing period and now will open to everyone. According to CNN, however, they don't care so much about selling music, 'Analysts have said the goal for Wal-Mart is to bring more people to its Web site.' Maybe they're taking cue from Apple in trying to sell something (iPod) else by using a music store? Articles can be found at Reuters, CNN and others."
amichalo points out that this is really a re-entry, writing "The service was previously launched last December. No explanation as to the re-launch (cough-poor-sales-cough) other than the addition of exclusive artists."
Did that yellow happy face fly by and knock the price from 99 cents to 88 cents?
Bargin Britney! yay!
:)
*kills self*
for the buy one get one free offers, 88 cents per song, pah!
Jonathanjk.com
is that all the songs suck, much like all the other WalMart merchandise.
Great, now I can buy all of my favorite death metal online, with all of the swear words censored by traM-laW. /ex Wal-Mart electronics employee
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
They build their mega-sized websites and put all the smaller websites in the neighborhood out of business.
Now you can wait in line behind 20 300lb people with there kids running around there legs like a pack of wild dogs for hours before downloading your music.
Whining about lack of Ogg in 3... 2...
One ugly site.
I can barely stand to visit website that have that narrow a static web page width design. Those graphics look worse than more Monster Template graphics.
How long to you have to stand in line to check out?
If I know Wal-Mart, 400,00 people will want to check out per hour, but their servers will only be able to hadnle 50,000 transactions in that same time period
For that matter, how do you go about returning the song when it quits playing after a few days?
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--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Are they offering the music in Ogg Vorbis format? That would rock!
With $250B in sales, that's $1k for every man, woman, and child in the US. So for the $3k they should get from my family (and won't) some other family is giving them $6k this year to make up for me not giving them a dime. It's staggering how huge they are.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
You mean Wal-Mart has artists that Kazaa does not?
It was only a matter of time before the price wars started. I had always thought that Apple's 99 cents per song was higher than necessary though, not unbearable. Now Walmart answers with 88 cents. I'd speculate that thet'll be going for 50 cents by Christmas.
Hey, where'd my key go???
DRM'd AND censored! Now that's how I like my music... limited and g-rated.
link That's probably how she got pregnant in the first place....listening to that devil music. ;)
CVew
free ipod and free gmail!
Since when does the average redneck Wal-Mart shopper have a computer?
How will WalMart attach RFID tags to downloaded songs?
Trolling is a art,
The Wal-Mart customers that are sufficiently technical already possess iPods. The Wal-Mart customers that aren't sufficiently technical are "wondering what this newfangled MP3 thing is."
What a niche!
Do you like German cars?
Give me self checkout and i'll use it. =)
I wonder if the Wal*Mart music store can make change for one of these million-dollar bills I've got here.
At the same time, I wonder if Wal*Mart will make musicians perform for 18 cents an hour in sweat-shop conditions in China in order to keep costs down.
I respect Wal*Mart for being the wealthiest and biggest company in the world in the same way that I respect tobacco for being the #1 preventable cause of death.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Or does their online shop yield to different standards than the brick and mortar shops? waif me, my friend.
Good job on getting the joke. Your username is quite fitting.
Now how are they going to get those RFID tags (as previously mentioned) into those MP3s? Oh wait, MP3 is lossy....I get it :)
I think all these online music resellers are realizing the increasing number of one hit wonders and the gradual decline of what we use to know as the "album". Current artists greatest hits collections know just consist of two songs and about 4 remixes of each. Maybe $.88 is still too high kniw that I think of it.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
BT (Brian Transeau, not sure of spelling)
It said I may also like Paula Abdul.
WHAT?!
But will I be able to return the song if I don't like it?
WALMART.COM may from time to time amend, supplement or modify the terms of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check these Terms of Service (available in the Music Downloads Help section) periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of changes will mean that you accept and agree to the changes. If you do not agree to be bound by the Agreement as amended, you must stop using the Service.
Also, looking at the useage terms
What are the restrictions on how I can use the music I download? By purchasing a music download, you are entitled to: * Download the music to 1 computer and back up music to 2 additional computers (see instructions below) * Make 10 burns to a CD * Make unlimited transfers to a portable device Microsoft Windows Media(R) Player 9 keeps track of the rights associated with each song. To back up your music, you will need to make copies of 1) the song files, and 2) the license files and transfer these to the new computer. Your song files are available in the place where you download your music. To back up license files, in Windows Media Player go to the Tools menu and click on License Management. You will see a dialogue box asking you where you want to store the license backup files. Click the "Back up Now" button to save the license files to this location. Then transfer the license files to the new computer. Please refer to the instructions in the Windows Media Player's help system for more information on backing up and restoring music to a computer.
Of course you could re rip from the CD's and convert into the format of your choice, but that is an extra step, and I personally wouldn't pay for a service that doesn't allow me to easily do whatever I wish, with the data on my computer.
If anybody sees the usage policy involved, they would certainly think twice. Media Player 9 only, need connection for first time played, must be played within 120 days to activate, can only burn CD's with Media player 9, cannot burn in any other format. Is this the norm? I can't believe people would not be put off by this.
Stay tuned for new sig...
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I hate to sound like a broken record, but *if* they were to ever drop their restrictive DRM and go with AAC, or something similar, I would darken their doorstep. Otherwise, I don't care if you offer .wma files for a penny a piece, they're not worth the space on my hard drive.
The only people that will ever succeed in online music stores will be those that offer decent DRM that is fair to both the fan and artist alike.
Get a clue Smiley yellow happy face guy
--pete
Believe me, there are enough parent in this country that take the lazy way out of properly parenting their children. This includes people from all walks of life, whether they would be caught dead in a Wal-Mart store or not. Mommy and Daddy Jones will left their kids download from Wal-Mart based on the knowledge that they demand cleaned-up versions of songs alone. Never mind the fact that this is only slightly less lazy since you can grasp the concept of f**k instead of fuck.
No Therion...I really thought Sam would come through on this one.
WMA, and requires Windows Media Player 9.
To quote their website:
(Sorry, no Mac or Linux.)
Sorry, guys, you'll get no money from me!
(Not like I shopped there, anyway.)
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
If i want to save 12 cents i get to:
a) use a browser instead of the top class itunes store.
b) i get to use some handcuff microsoft monoply DRM schema instead of the aptly named "Fairplay" DRM from itunes.
c) I don't get to use their music with the number 1 (and coolest and functional) selling mp3 player in the world.
d) i can't buy music if i use a mac.
e) I get to add the to the walmart-fication of american which in my opinion is a mindset is destroying the quality of life in america?
I'd rather spend the 12 cents....
and BTW i have bought about 250 songs from the itunes music store....best music experience online...
If you live in a state where Wal-Mart has a physical store location you MUST pay sales tax. At 7% sales tax, the song will cost 95 cents.
I just bought The Clash's Essential Clash yesterday at Circuit City. How much? $13.90 with tax for 40 tracks. Keep shopping.
I wonder if price is really an issue though. For the mp3 player itself, it doesn't seem like Apple's premium price for the iPod is an issue at all. Then everyone went nuts when the iPod Mini came out at $250, yet again, the price wasn't an issue. What everyone raves about is the usability of the machine itself. I think that could be the case here too. Sure, you can get your songs eleven cents cheaper at Wal Mart, but do they have the music and do they have the user experience that iTMS has? iTunes isn't just another store...it's successful because it's easy to use. I know I'm fine with spending eleven cents more to find what I want quickly and easily and then move on to my next task.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
If so, how do I do it?
If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!
Regardless of whether or not they censor albums, they will have, at best, the same meager ridiculous selection that every other service has.
Every time a new legal online-music appears, I take a look for the music that I like to listen to (Failure, Sneaker Pimps, etc; check my audioscrobbler if you're curious). Granted, they aren't exactly mainstream pop, but they aren't that uncommon. I still haven't found a service that reliably has some of those lesser-known artists (I just checked Wal-Mart's site, and they are no exception). If I'm going to do online music, then the selection had better be about as good as Amazon's.
Can someone recommend one that sells "mp3's" as opposed to WMA crap?
I have an older archos hard drive based multimedia jukebox and it doesn't do WMA's...
thanks,
*shrug*
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
DRM
Well, since wal-mart usually provides stuff at a bargin but many things are not high quality...will that transfer to their music??? Such at just a bit rate of 96khz.
Evolution or ID?
http://www.1worldcommunication.org/Walmart.htm
Wal-Mart could make a killing if it offered kiosks in its stores where you could download and burn music. There are a lot of people who don't use computers, are ignorant about computers, who don't own burners, etc, but would LOVE to buy various CDs of their favorite songs.
And Wal-Mart could force the music industry to go along with the deal. If some label refused, Wal-Mart could simply refuse to stock their entire catalog. No label could survive being shutout by Wal-Mart!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Its kind of weird how I haven't heard anything yet about Amazon's Music service.
Everything is free (legal, but selection isvery limited, no uniform media-format) and they allow anyone to upload their own music to be downloaded by others.
$0.88 is too expensive, it should be $0.00, drm less, high quality waves/flac/ogg/mp3/midi/etc, fast downloads, have a catalog containing all the music ever created, and also give us a copy of the origional cd!
As a consumer I am sticking with p2p until they fully meet my demands!
actually 1.07*0.88 = 94 cents. Actually that brings up an interesting question, must you pay sales tax if you live in a state which has an Apple Computer Store?
What artist would possibly go exclusive with Walmart? The Whistling Yellow Smiley or The Walmart Carolers?
I must say I am so sick of hearing about the freakin' iPod. iPod this, iPod that!! I am the proud owner of the Classic branded 10Gig hard drive based mp3 player. At $99.00 the price couldn't be beat. I must also say that this Sys Admin doesn't have the 400 bucks to spend on a freakin' over priced iPod. Apple is a GREAT company who makes a great OS. But Apple is WAY to proud of it's iPod.
I find it rather amusing that according to this website, Wal-Mart's 88 cents per track price point "...will be minimized by sales taxes that apply to customers that have a Wal-Mart in their state."
:)
Another reason, among many, to keep using the iTunes Music Store. 50 million downloads and counting.
perhaps i'm missing something, but the only way to view the songs is via a multi-page list. for example, if i search for "pearl jam", it will display all of the songs for sale by pearl jam on six seperate pages. i can sort them by title, album, etc. but there are no individual pages for albums, or individual pages with a listing of all their albums. that site already needs to be redesigned.
11 cents :)
And yeah, iTunes is great... though my wallet may not agree!
yesterday's news today...read all about it on slashdot...
Until you have William Hung as an exclusive artist you might as well hold off on opening the music store. He's the only money maker out there.
and several of the albums are only offered in an edited format. I can imagine other albums are the same. Sorry Walmart, no business from me.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
I really thought that walmart had a good shot at becoming the biggest music store on the net for this very reason. But they have done a horrible job at selling it. No one knows about it. Maybe this will change not that they have had their second opening, but for their first opening I don't even think that they advertized it in their own store yet alone anywhere else. They are treating it as just another ho-hum part of the walmart website.
:)
Between that, and the fact that the only people who do know about it probably wouldn't buy there because they censor their music, I don't see walmart as making much of a splash at all. I hope it stays that way
At what point does the lowering of the price of downloadable music approaching the practice of dumping? Similar to what the USA constantly accuses foreign memory chip or timber companies of doing? Is wal-mart using its monolopy on low end merchandise to sibsidize its entry into the music business to the detriment of competition?
I make my face look like this and concerned words come out.
Wal-Mart truly is the Land of Broken Dreams.
I'm so sick and tired of reading about Wal-Mart. Whoopie do, they are a huge retailer, yeah! Anyone else sick of hearing "Walmart this, Walmart that"? No wonder they are so huge, for some reason the media loves "Walmart does anything"... I've now offically seen more in the news about Walmart, then I have of OJ.
Mod +5 Drunk
From site:
What file format do Music Downloads come in?
Music Downloads from Walmart.com are 128-bit WMA files. The WMA format allows record companies to protect their music by using Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption. This means that music downloads are legal, safe, and easy to use. The 128-bit WMA files also offer superior sound quality.
So you have to use Windows, accept DRM, and pay for a lossy song format? I'm gonna have to quote Triumph The Insult Comic Dog here, "Hear that? That is the sound of no one giving a shit."
The LA Times did an excellent series on Walmart's
negative effects on US manufacturers, overseas suppliers, its own workers, and the US economy last year. It was sparked by the impending entry of Walmart into the Southern California grocery market. Which also indirectly caused the painful, drawn out strike by workers at other grocery chains there.
But my favorite story on Walmart I've read so far (other than the lady who was nearly killed last year in the scramble for a cheap dvd player) is Fast Company's analysis of the company's effect on US manfacturers.
It starts, oddly, with a jar of pickles. And talks about how getting a distribution deal with Walmart eventually undermines and nearly destroys the Vlasic pickle company, due to savage cost cuts forced by Walmart, and undermining of the company's brand-image as they moved to selling big, cheap jars of pickles.
Along the way, the article shows how Walmart forces US manufacturers to move overseas, and even advises them on how to do it.
\
I just was surfing through the music archive.. and check this out!
.. Thus keeping the old concept of "I bought the CD cuz' I heard the song on the radio" alive on the net.. very tricky...
Excerpt from the tracklisting on the CD "Dirty Vegas - Dirty Vegas"
1. I Should Know - Listen - 6:13 - $0.88
2. Ghosts - Listen - 5:22 - $0.88
3. Lost Not Found - Listen - 4:08 - $0.88
4. Days Go By - Listen - 7:12 - Song only available with album download.
5. Etc.. Etc..
WHOA! They take the main hit track off the CD, and not let you purchase that one individually... make you buy the whole CD! (Apparantly because that track would be the only REASON people would by the CD)
Anyone else noticed any other albums exhibiting this pattern?
Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves? -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
They're not trying to "bring more people to their website" - they're trying to put someone else out of business. One guy comes up with a good idea, Walmart destroys him with quanity.
The fat lady is the only one left because she's sitting on the little guy, and she's singing about it.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
WHat is this store thing? I'm an OPSN SOURCE supporter, all my music should be free, dammit! I want my free music! and my free car, and free food, and free sex
...and I want my mommy!
NOW!!!!!
With the selection they have, I have a feeling you will find failure at this online store soon enough...
[/bitterness]
warning: This post is likely to contain gobs of dripping sarcasm. Consume at your own risk.
"Note: Music downloads from Walmart.com will not play on the Apple Macintosh or Linux operating systems." according to the Wal mart notice on their sample download. So I tried it anyway. The wma file downloaded and played straight away in MPlayer. I'm on a mac. Are they lying, or is MPlayer magic or what?
-- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
some old geezer in a blue vest said howdy and gave me a sticker
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
88 = HH = HEIL HITLER!
everyone knows this.
AVOID THEM AT ALL COST.
Your search for the artist "ltj bukem" produced no matches. Please try again.
Your search for the artist "squarepusher" produced no matches. Please try again.
Your search for the artist "thievery corporation" produced no matches. Please try again.
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well, uh.. at least they have garth brooks.
Hmm. I wonder whether the natural result of this will be to see all music "production" offshored to China, where low-skill "musicians" will be paid pennies a day to produce low-quality music in deplorable conditions. Not much of a difference from what we have today, except that Wal-Mart will get *all* the money instead of recording companies.
Hey - here's an idea. Is there a way we could play Wal-Mart off against the RIAA? That's probably too much to hope for.
"You done taken a wrong turn."
-Bill McKinney, in Deliverance
Actually Wal-Mart doesn't make a penny on any of the music it sells in its stores. In fact Wal-Mart sells music at a loss to attract the masses.
12. Enforcement of These Terms of Service.
[...] You agree that WALMART.COM has the right, without liability to you, to disclose any Registration Data and/or Account information to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or a third party , as WALMART.COM believes is reasonably necessary or appropriate to enforce and/or verify compliance with any part of this Agreement (including but not limited to WALMART.COM's right to cooperate with any legal process relating to your use of the Service and/or Products, and/or a third party claim that your use of the Service and/or Products is unlawful and/or infringes such third party's rights).
(emphasis added)
Interesting (in essence, that's "we can pretty much do whatever we damn well please with the data we connect about you and you can't do a thing about it")...
When you click the "Accept these Terms" button, you agree, if you share your downloaded files, to be hunted down and slashed to bloody bits by that floating yellow price-cutting happy face.
Those things are the real secret behind Wal-Mart's success. They lurk behind the shelves looking for shoplifters*, and God forbid employees even whisper "union" within a hundred feet of a SmileBot.
Stefan
* You know that weird-tasting fatty meat served on top of the Wal-Mart lunch counters? Ever wonder where it comes from?
Thanks to DVD Jon, I can remove DRM from iTunes purchases, but I can't do that on protected WMA purchases, so I won't be shopping at Wal-Mart.
Well, I can explain why you couldn't find those groups. You see, its the Walmart Online MUSIC Store.
</desire>
RIAA Fan: Hey I heard a number of 2006 album went quadruple platinum. And you made a fortune.
RIAA Exec: Yes a number of albums went extra overtime platinum.
RIAA Fan: You must be pimping the new ride.
RIAA Exec: No.
RIAA Fan: Why not.
RIAA Exec: Ever since walmart and other competition came in we sold songs for $.01 each.
RIAA Fan: Damn
RIAA Exec: Next year mom's and pop's pizza place will be offering downloads for a quarter of a penny.
RIAA Fan: Yes!!!!
Someone needs to sell a cdr driver that dumps to a file
Microsoft would never sign it, the same way it would never sign an audio output driver that writes to disk.
And why should that family be expected to pay $6 a pair for socks just to keep a local business open? If all you are doing is selling me socks, you shouldn't be making more than minimum wage anyway. Go learn a skill.
Different example: hardware store. There's one in downtown Concord, MA, that's been in business for 100 years this year. It's tiny, but has excellent service and is part of the downtown area that helps keep Concord from being a soul-less commuter town (being the home to the start of the Revolutionary War and Thoreau et al. helps too). There's an Ace less than a mile away, and a Home Despot not too far away.
If it disappeared b/c of these competitors, Concord would lose some character (keeps the property values up, thanks), and I (who work and live nearby) would lose a convenient place to buy batteries and get advice. So that's why I go there as much as possible (it's actually cheaper, too, as I don't have to drive there).
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories
For just 10% more you can get music in a format that has better quality
Some care less about the fidelity of the recording than about the quality of the songwriting and of the performance. It's still cheaper to buy the four good songs from an album at 88 cents per song than to buy the whole album for $12.98.
Encrypted WMAs do not work on my linux box
Encrypted WMAs do not work on my personal MP3 CD player
Encrypted WMAs do not work on my MP3 CD Player in the living room.
If I need MP3 why are they keeping trying to sell something else?
Most of the music industry hates the MP3 standard because they cannot count each time a song is listened to with it, they have rights over copying and they want to count each time a song is copied from a medium to ram for play. This is ridicoulous. To stay in business they want to difform the spirit of an old law.
At least they understand at warp records:
http://www.warprecords.com/bleep/
Sounds cool and cheaper than iTunes. But Walmart retail stores have taken to not accepting Mastercard Debit card (takes money from my checking account, is not a credit card) as payment, which happened early February sometime. I'm not going to call it a debit card to them, as that means I pay service fees to someone, while if I tell a store it's a Mastercard "Credit card" I myself do not pay an extra fee. I was told that Visa debit cards are still accepted (but my bank/credit union only has the Mastercard one available for me to get) and they stopped accepting Mastercard debit cards because the fee to Walmart was higher than the Visa debit card fee.
:/
Apparently Walmart still was going to accept true Mastercard credit cards when I talked to them about it last month.
So, am I even able to participate in this, considering the only payment opeion I'd have is my Mastercard debit card? I closed all my true credit cards and don't want new ones, as Walmart is the only place I have a problem with it (well, Sam's club too but they are part of Walmart, and I sure as heck don't want another Discover card to be able to shop at Sam's... I don't carry checkbooks or cash around.)
iTMS gives you the option of downloading music which is uniform in bitrate
That's the problem. It takes more bitrate to encode more acoustically complex passages. As I understand it, iTMS purchased recordings are not VBR.
If you happen to edit a movie and need an obscure Mel Torme track from 1940's to go with it, iTMS is the place
Last time I checked, all iTunes Music Store gives the customer is a copy of the recording, not the right to synchronize it to an audiovisual work. That must still be negotiated with the music publisher and then negotiated again with the record label.
Heh, that's just as well, cause all I use it for is to get 500x500 pixel (better than Amazon) album artwork for my ripped-from-CD iTunes library :) (Not that I could buy anything from 'em anyway, as it's US-only.)
*actually nowdays they don't bleep anything, it is usually replaced with 1.Silence, 2.The swearing just altered to sound all slurred and backwards. or 3. a girl moaning a sex sound (uggnnnhh)
they allow anyone to upload their own music to be downloaded by others.
How does Amazon check to see if a particular submitted recording is Bright Tunes-safe before publishing it? The agreement requires "The worldwide rights to your song" for reasons obvious to any reader familiar with copyright law, but how does the songwriter go about proving that he does indeed have such rights? (The term "Bright Tunes-safe" refers to the case that established that subconscious copying is actionable infringement.)
If anybody could strangle the record companies into letting them offer unencumbered MP3 format songs, it was Wal-Mart. Just one more death whimper for the recording industry...
I don't care about the price point or even the censorship. I have an album I want right now and I've checked all the MP3 stores but none has it.
OFFER MP3 YOU FRICKIN IDIOT RECORD COMPANIES!!! Or I will buy *NOTHING.* Get my business, or don't. Your problem.
Posted by yintercept - "...science...[is] the study of the 'divine creation.' "
Who would want to be available EXCLUSIVELY through Wal-Mart??? Trash music like Kid Rock i could see...tied with his Coors sponsorship it'd be perfect, free wife-beater with every download.
Forget the song title and look only at the times and prices. The iTunes Music Store has such a pattern: any song over x minutes is labeled "album only". This is in part because labels pay more to the songwriter's publisher to license longer songs.
I live less than 10 miles from an apple store, and have paid no tax
Is the Apple Store just across the state line?
Does Apple actually charge, say, $0.93396 per track ($0.99000 / 1.0600) to Indiana residents?
...there is Radio Shack. If they had a music store, it would be $1.99/track. They'd sell it up with their slogan, "If you've got questions, we've got answers! ", seemingly offering great service. (Yet their service is equal or marginally better than any other competitor.)
What they're really doing is advertising to the crowd with lots of dollars and little brains. If you compare/contrast to Wal-Mart, I'd have to say that Wal-Mart's business model makes more sense.
At least in Utah they do. Which is nice, because they're admitting it's a product, not a service, and I can therefore remove the DRM (thanks DVD Jon!) and use it like I do any such product (like CDs) for personal, home use.
I'm so glad we all are better than them!!!
Yup.
Gary Jules' album released yesterday has the cover of "Mad World" that is getting tons of radio airplay these days. It is the only song that is in heavy rotation and is the only song that is not available for individual download.
Interesting to note that the album on iTMS is simply missing that song altogether.
Wal-Mart sell Linux PCs, so surely by not providing a player for Linux they are shooting themselves in the foot? It's a bit like selling CDs but no CD players, and cassette players but no pre-recorded cassettes.
Anyway, I have an idea for the perfect all-purpose DRM-defeater. It does require the use of a Windows PC upon which to extract the DRM'ed file; but the data is obtained in uncompressed, raw PCM. It can then be further processed, re-compressed or whatever you want to do with it. No analogue step involved. And it's all based in hardware, so there's absolutely Jack Shit anybody can do about it.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
You know, Wal-mart selling music is like a computer manufacturer selling music...oh, wait. Nevermind.
go search for the artist "lords of acid" and read the song list.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Easy... you could sell it here. Plus you'd get 65% of the profit instead of the just barely above 0% most record labels would pay you.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
I'd like to know who is getting the screw job from Wal*Mart due to the $0.88 price tag they are offering their songs at?
Why do I ponder this? Because Apple isn't making profits off $0.99 per song because they have to pay for the micropayments to the credit card companies, the large cut to the RIAA, the cut to the record label, the hosting fees, and finally, the artist.
So am I to believe the RIAA cut its staggering cut to appease Wal*Mart? Was it the individual labels? (doubtful) Or did the artist lose out yet again?
If Apple can't clobber Wal*Mart, I will root for Sony...and I will feel odd doing so.
btw: isn't this a bad idea to sell WMA formatted songs on walmart.com when their great selling Linux PCs won't be able to take part in such a business endeavor?
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Could you not use a utility like dBPowerAmp to convert the WMA file to MP3 or any other audio codec of your choice?
So I compared and contrasted Walmart with iTunes.
Say I want to buy The Flaming Lips' Soft Builletin album (a rare album with no filler).
iTunes music store: $9.99 for the album.
Walmart music store: 88c * 14 tracks = $12.32
So those of us who like to buy albums are not going to be better off unless the album has 12 tracks.
With all the market segments they are getting into (groceries, general merchandise, eye-glasses, pharmacy, car repair, etc...), I'm just wondering when they are going to change their name to OCP.
bork bork bork!
WalMart isn't going to carry most movies I want.
Neither is Blockbuster(the only retail corporation I actively boycott).There is your niche market ripe to be filled.
AllofMP3
Magnatune
AllofMP3 is a Russion site that sells scads of mainstream popular music for $0.01/MB. Magnatune is an Indie lable that lets you decide how much to pay and the artist gets a HEFTY chunk of it. Both services let you chose between mp3, ogg, flac (Allof MP3 has even more choices - It impressed the hell out of me.)
Both services also alow you to preview the whole song or album before you buy it.
First, it is platform-neutral for browsing. I was able to look at the selection and search from Linux. iTMS rquires iTunes, which is only for Mac and Windows. BuyMusic.com is brower-based, but stupidly checks specifically for IE.
Second, they seemed to have a better selection than iTMS. I've got 5 of the iTMS/Pepsi winning bottle caps, and have had a surprisingly hard time finding stuff I want to download from Apple. I'm looking for things where I like an individual song from an artist enough to want that song, but I am not enough of a fan to ever buy a whole album from them. iTMS was missing everything I could think of. Wal-Mart was missing most of them, but did have a couple.
The credit card transaction costs about $0.35. This is the largest piece. Until there's a cost effective way to reduce the transaction costs with micro payments, songs are going to continue to be about a buck each under this business model. Unless you use P2P of course.
I'm confused. So are we to believe that Wal-Mart sells PC's that can't play music that is downloaded from their own web site? How is this good marketing in the least?
"A recent version of Windows (sorry, no Mac or Linux)"
'nuff said - I'm outta here.
"That naive cube! How long must I suffer this!" --Sheldon J. Plankton
Hey, the parent is not a troll...it was funny. Hell, it was in response to a pro-wal-mart post.
They are the best source I've found for album cover art: the pictures are large, sharp, colour-balanced, and not over-compressed, and they have a very large selection. Since I started using iTunes' artwork feature to add cover art to all my music, most of it has come from Walmart.
Whatever you think about their corporate policy (and I've heard nothing good), that's at least one good thing they do.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Buying music at Walmart is about the most uncool thing you can do. Get some taste . . .
...of the "slashdotters said that last week, and now they say this. What a bunch of fscking hypocrites!" line of argument?
Look at that number after your username. There were that many accounts registered here when you joined. There are even more now. In a community with about 800,000 members, you have to expect that they won't all say the same thing all the time. It's not hypocrisy, it's just numbers.
0 1 - just my two bits
All hail FatWallet:
Here are some legal (in Russia!) MP3 download sites - most flat fee:
allofmp3.com
This site is locally legit and songs can be downloaded for as little as $0.01 per MB. That's around 3 cents per song.
DELit
Unusual emphasis on hard rock and metal acts (east European and Russian youth apparently worship metal acts)
3MP3.ru
$4.55 per month for unlimited downloads.
And you are not stuck with the typical iTMS low-quality 128Kbit file. Most of the Russian sites let you choose your quality and give you the option to do "online encoding" where you can select the settings you want. When the pop up screen shows up you can hit switch to advanced mode toward the bottm and you get the following options:
You can choose between the LAME or BLADE codec and 128, 160, 192, 256, and 320 kbps for each (constant bitrate). Or you can choose LAME variable bitrate at 128, 160, 192, or 256.
If you enjoy these services, 3MP3 should be your first stop to see if you can find what you are looking for at the lowest price. Then I'd move to allofmp3, followed by clubmp3.ru, and then DELit.
Da Blog
...a "relaunch" of anything worked? Doesn't "relaunch" mean, "We failed but can't admit it and don't know when to quit?"
One thing I have noticed in this discussion on Wal-Mart is how it seems that most of you slashdotters don't have the stigma against Wal-Mart shoppers that we I always seem to encounter. Around here nobody would admit to shopping at Wal-Mart. Most people see it synonimous with being poor and "trashy" obviously this can be an unfair assumption though I admit I would never set foot in there for that reason and many others. Is this just around here or it a national thing too?
Roxio (Napster) has an interesting setup at Target these days.
Across the isle from the traditional CD's and around the corner from Apple's iPod display including cool $15 pre-paid iTMS gift cards sits Roxio's marketing "all in".
They have branded Napster pre-paid cards (at $14.85 vs. Apple'
s $15 pre paid card, though you do get $15.00 worth of single tracks or full albums) as well as "Napster brand" blank CD's (perfect for audio burning) and even CD cases for your car, complete with the Napster Kitty logo.
I think this is brlliant myself. They are making Napster the Brand - so everytime you pull out that burned CD, today, tomorrow, two years from now, you remember you got that crap for $99 a track off Napster.com. Plus, they are sure to make better margins off their re-branded merchandise than on their $0.99 music.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
"Several readers wrote to me from .mac addresses, and one of them actually looked into this. He wrote to an Apple representative and asked, "Is Apple willing to license FairPlay to other hardware vendors and/or other online download providers? If so, can you send me details about the licensing agreement?" The short but sweet reply he received from her was, "The answer is no."
FairPlay is not an Apple technology, it belongs to VeriDisc, a DRM startup.
http://64.244.235.240/info_about.asp
No clue why their domain isn't resolving... they're probably already making more than enough money from Apple to care.
thanks for that link.
Yea its just another Windows Only music service though as it requires Windows and Media Player 9 so Linux users are again out of luck.
What ticks me off about this is after RIAA whined for a few years about d/loading they finally came up with what we'd been saying they need to do all along: change to digital and individual songs, but then they limit the platforms due to DRM.
Almost fell orft me chair sitting having brekkie in little old England when I saw this headline! By Jove, does this mean that we Brits can finally listen to that sassy little minx Britney on our own MP3 players? NO ! Does it 'eck ! It's still only for the USA, despite the fact they have set up shop here! Will they never learn ?!?!?!
...censored music online?
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Rest in peace, David Blood.
It is possible to get lower prices in less volume in many circumstances. Suppose you are a small widget making company that needs widget juice to make your widgets. You can approach the widget juice vendors and say that you need to get a better price than Huge Widget Company, despite the fact that you only buy 5% of the juice. After all, how are you supposed to compete with HWC (and stay in business) if you can't compete on price. The widget juice vendor just wants to sell as much juice as possible so you may be able to cut a very good deal.