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

Sort of remarkable

[inkswamp]

Whether you love Apple or hate 'em, you have to admit that it's remarkable that a computer company that is often viewed as a niche player may have actually outfoxed Wal-Mart and has put that company (often viewed as an unstoppable force in business) on a bit of a defensive position. Sort of amusing when you think about it. It would be really amazing to see if Wal-Mart, of all companies, were unable to compete with Apple in this regard (although I have no doubt that this won't be Wal-Mart's last effort.)

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

[KingOfBLASH]

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?

I would hope they would do something like Apple's iTunes -- offer both censored and uncensored versions of songs online. Even better, allow parents to set limits on their kids, so those who want their kids to have censored lyrics can have it, and people can go there for the prices without getting other peoples morales pushed on them.

Return Policy?

[thebra]

But will I be able to return the song if I don't like it?

Re:given the power that walmart has...

[wankledot]

Pretty amazing when you put it in those terms, especially given so many people in the urban centers that don't have a walmart to shop at.

When a family in Kansas makes $50k a year, and 1/3 of that goes to the mortgage, and another 2/3 goes to general household expenses, that's ... .6 * 50... $30k that Walmart has a good shot at getting its hands on. Food, Clothes, Car parts, you name it, Walmart is the logical place to spend your money, they have the best prices.

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. Of course, walmart will be happy to give you a job at minimum wage with no benefits to replace that job they took away from you. And people eat it up because they have a sale on tube socks today. 12 pair for $2.99!@# The price they pay for low priced products is the loss of small business, loss of jobs, and massive cost-saving consolidation across the entire retail sector in the US. Good for walmart, good for the country, right?

When the supplier goes out of business walmart creates its own store brand and sells that. And that's the stick they can hold above any supplier's head "we'll just make it ourselves." So do you sell at almost a loss to walmart, or lose 1/2 of your sales for the year overnight by standing up to them?

Amazon Free Music Downloads

[Archalien]

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.

Sample song works on a mac

[nattt]

"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?