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

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

[Penguinisto]

After all, Wal-Mart does have a habit of "editing" certain CD's for language content and such... did they do the same to their online versions as well?

given the power that walmart has...

[wankledot]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were paying a LOT less per track to the labels than Apple, etc. are. Walmart is by far the most powerful force in retail, selling more CDs than anyone in the country. They can dictate to their supliers exactly what they want to pay, and they will always play ball. I'm sure they are capable of making more money than most other online stores for that simple reason. For an interesting look at Walmart's pricing, look around on the web for the article on the 1 gallon jar of pickles from Vlassic.

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.

Re:given the power that walmart has...

[Grishnakh]

One big complaint I have against the smaller businesses, however, is that they're never open when I'm not at work. Wal-Mart and other large stores are. Why should I take time off from work just to buy something?

If the smaller shops would stay open reasonable hours, maybe they'd get some business back from the megastores. It's not like they actually have to keep the store open that long, either; they could shift their hours to 11AM-9PM.

This is actually why I try to do as much shopping as I can online; there are no hours of operation there, and I don't have to drive far out of my way.

Re:given the power that walmart has...

[nolife]

What that family doens't realize is that walmart is the reason that half the small businesses in their little town are gone, and people are out of work.

Walmart puts no one out of business, the shoppers that stop going to the little stores does. People can and do choose what store they want to buy from. People choose Walmart over the small stores because of the prices, the hours, the convienence and the selection and who know what else. The people are voting with the dollar. You did not specifically mention it but I've heard an arguement that Walmart lowers prices until local businesses are gone, then raise them. That is complete bull. Walmart has the same prices over an entire geographical region, a car battery costs $39.95 in Charleston SC, Charleston WV, Pittsburgh PA, and Reading PA. Same with apple juice and underwear. You think they are going to raise the price in all of those areas when "Joes Battery shop" in Pittsburgh finally goes under?

Re:Sort of remarkable

[afidel]

What I'm amazed at is that Walmart was able to beat enough price out of someone to lower the selling price by 12%. My guess is that the extra is coming out of the credit card companies who were probably told by Walmart that they better lower their charges or Wally World would start issueing their own credit cards that could be used at all Walmart locations, Sam's Clubs, and at the online store. Losing even a couple percent of Walmarts $250 Billion in revenue is enough to scare any corporation. I say this only because I doubt even Walmart could squeeze profit out of the record companies.

SO let me get this straight

[computerme]

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...

As I've said at the original launch

[Anita Coney]

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!