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."

Comments

Hmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Did that yellow happy face fly by and knock the price from 99 cents to 88 cents?

Re:Hmmmm

[skinny.net]

It was the Zorro-like smiley.

The prices are cheap because they put the $.88 songs right there by the checkout button and you have to sift through piles of the exact same drivel to find a keeper down at the bottom and even then the box is torn.

woohoo

[negacao]

Bargin Britney! yay!

*kills self* :)

Censorship

[stephenisu]

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

Re:Censorship

[Neil Blender]

So if you like bubblegum pop, hiphop, and country, Wal-Marts the place to shop. Otherwise, no dice.


Very true. I went to Walmart once. Turns out they don't sell asyncronous laser diode current controls either.

Re:Censorship

[gcaseye6677]

When you go to their online store, will they have simulated sound effects of kids crying, video games, awful country music, and in store pages all playing through your speakers? You know, so that you get the genuine Wal-Mart experience. Now they just need to find a way to simulate that horrible smell of cheap plastic shoes.

Re:Censorship

[nelsonal]

If you are willing to settle for syncronous laser diode current controls they have those in hardware next to the sandpaper (Usually Aisle 20 or 21).

Re:Censorship

[pilgrim23]

What? No John Tesh?

Re:Censorship

[gUmbi]

Very true. I went to Walmart once. Turns out they don't sell asyncronous laser diode current controls either.

Do you know where they sell those? I need one for my time machine!

Re:Censorship

[MikeXpop]

I don't know personally, but I've got an old flux capacitor you can borrow.

Re:Censorship

[MikeXpop]

First they censored the music
and I did not speak out--
because I did not like music.
Then they censored the movies
and I did not speak out--
because I did not like movies.
Then they censored the video games
and I did not speak out--
because I did not like video games
Then they censored the asyncronous laser diode current controls--
and there was no one was no one left to speak for the asyncronous laser diode current control enthusiests.

Wal-Mart unfair to small websites

[Anonymous Coward]

They build their mega-sized websites and put all the smaller websites in the neighborhood out of business.

Wonderful

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Waiting in line...

[franoculator]

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?

Define "exclusive artists" Please?

[Pro_Piracy_Guy]

...other than the addition of exclusive artists.

You mean Wal-Mart has artists that Kazaa does not?

Woohoo!

[Anonymous Coward]

DRM'd AND censored! Now that's how I like my music... limited and g-rated.

Huh?

[grub]

How will WalMart attach RFID tags to downloaded songs?

Oh, wonderful!

[Scoria]

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!

I wonder if they can make change...

[The I Shing]

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.

Re:An update on Walmart's online music store

[scumbucket]

I can't wait to buy Slim Whitman and Zamphir: Master of the Pan Flute songs over the internet at Wal-Mart!

And I'll be first in line when the new album 'Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sings the Blues' goes on sale!

Summing up all the slashbot reply:

[Anonymous Coward]

$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!

Re:SO let me get this straight

[skinny.net]

But you can save a whopping $.55 if you buy whole albums! ($9.44) Yeah, I'd rather spend the $.12 or buy a couple more Pepsis.

Exclusive Artists? Huh?

[StateOfTheUnion]

Exclusive Artists?

What artist would possibly go exclusive with Walmart? The Whistling Yellow Smiley or The Walmart Carolers?

William Hung

[BMonger]

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.

TERRIFYING DOWNSIDE

[StefanJ]

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?

Re:...but do they censor the online stuff too?

[dr_dank]

I specifically remember Walmart requiring the song list for Nirvana's In Utero to list the song "Rape Me" as "Waif Me"

I remember that. I hope I'm not the only one who envisioned the sanitized version having Elmer Fudd singing "Wape Me".

Re:Sort of remarkable

[Bingo Foo]

No, but perhaps an 11c saving per track will.