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Wal-Mart Relaunches Online Music Store

Posted by timothy on from the 88-cents-a-song dept.

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."

13 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    1. Re:Hmmmm by skinny.net · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

  2. woohoo by negacao · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bargin Britney! yay!

    *kills self* :)

  3. Censorship by stephenisu · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!
    1. Re:Censorship by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Funny


      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.

    2. Re:Censorship by gcaseye6677 · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

    3. Re:Censorship by nelsonal · · Score: 5, Funny

      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).

      --
      Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  4. Wal-Mart unfair to small websites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. Wonderful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  6. Waiting in line... by franoculator · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  7. Define "exclusive artists" Please? by Pro_Piracy_Guy · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...other than the addition of exclusive artists.

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

  8. Woohoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  9. Oh, wonderful! by Scoria · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?