Walmart: The Dell of Online Music Retailing

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5177937.html?tag=nefd_top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-517...ml?tag=nefd_top</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040323_walmart.gif" /> <br /><br />"On Tuesday, the mammoth chain retailer formally opened its online music store, from which customers can download music at 88 cents per song. That's 10 cents less than Apple Computer charges at its iTunes music store, which has been the pacesetter on this e-commerce track. <br /><br />The Wal-Mart service allows customers to play downloaded music on Windows PCs, to burn songs to a CD or to transfer music to portable devices. Usage rights are uniform across the company's catalog of music. The retailer began testing the service in December and is working in partnership with Liquid Digital Media, formerly Liquid Audio."<br /><br />The tracks are in WMA format, so they should transfer easily to Pocket PCs via Windows Media Player. On a side note, it looks like their policy of editing/censoring music has been carried over to their online store. Try a search for "Eminem" and see how many of the results carry the "Edited" label. <br /><br />Do you see this service as being a credible alternative to iTunes? Or even to Napster?

[darrylb]

As soon as these services are available for the rest of the world, I'll let you know :roll:

These things are great. But the majority of the world (i.e. that which is outside of the US) cant access them. I wish I could!

[shawnc]

The tracks are in WMA format, so they should transfer easily to Pocket PCs via Windows Media Player.

Do you see this service as being a credible alternative to iTunes? Or even to Napster?

WMA means in INSTANTLY goes to the top of my list!

[Gremmie]

I don't think it'll be a good competitor, Walmart is unlikely to sell downloads that have swear words or have parental warnings. Besides, would 10 cents make someone navigate away from iTunes?

[MultiMatt]

Besides, would 10 cents make someone navigate away from iTunes?
NOT ME!
I can't STAND Wally World, and will not patronize them.

I'll gladly pay the extra .10 to iTunes. If another company - one that I would patronize - were to sell the songs for less, then I'd go for it.

But not them...

Matt

[pivaska]

It is good to see a great company like WalMart has something that as a grandparent I know my grandchildren will be able to go to in a "safe" download area for songs. 10 cents is a big thing to them because it means that you can get one more song for "free" with the same amount of money. Plus WMA is the only way to go.

[Janak Parekh]

It is good to see a great company like WalMart has something that as a grandparent I know my grandchildren will be able to go to in a "safe" download area for songs.
I believe that most critics are unhappy with WalMart's policy not because they only sell edited versions, but they don't make the distinction that they've done so, so you can't tell.

Anyway, I've gotta side with MultiMatt. I'm very happy with the iTunes setup, and feel no inclination to change.

--janak

[szamot]

at $.25 that would be worth it at $.88 it's not bad but still not for me.

[Jonathan1]

As a rebuttal in the format wars:

DVD Forum chooses Apple music format for DVD Audio (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/36463.html)


As for Walmat it has been know for a while that the following apply to their service:

* 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

This is similar to iTunes with one major exception. 10 burns per song. Period.

How many times can I burn a song onto a custom CD?
You are licensed to burn a song to a CD 10 times. If you try to burn a CD after that, Windows Media® Player 9 will deliver a message indicating that you are not licensed to make any more burns to a CD.

So in reality those 11 cents you are saving is deducted in your ability to use the music. I understand that there may be more then a few people that will never burn more then 10 copies of a song but consider the length of time you may have this track. It’s a good possibility in 2 or 3 years you may hit that 10 song limit and for me I know for a fact that if iTunes acted the same way I would be very close on some of my tracks. Maybe 7-8 burns so far. And we won't even get into the discussion of needing to backup the licenses for DRM WMA files. iTunes you simply need to backup the files. Its the player that gets activated from apple but for those that are "creative" enough we can get around that. ;)

Thanks but I will stick with AAC. I just found that the AAC format, or maybe its an apple thing?, allows you to embed album art into the file. It’s not a big deal but its little things like this that makes me like AAC more and more. That and I swear in a side by side comparison of a 128kb/s WMA9 and AAC file the AAC file sound....*shrugs* I don't know the word. richer?? :?:


PS - Yes I'm aware of the irony that Windows Media 9 video codec was chosen as the next format for DVD video and AAC was chosen as the next format for DVD audio.

[ctmagnus]

Personally, I try to avoid Walmart as much as possible. I can't stand going through a store in a mall to get to your vehicle and have someone put a sticker on all the bags you're carrying, just so you won't be able to steal anything from that store. Especially if all the bags are from stores a few notches up the snooty scale. Other reasons: Wal-Martization aka suburban sprawl, The Economy Sucks, and it's WalMart's fault! (http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/000152.html) and an article I read in September about the corporate antics of their founding family.

[Aerestis]

All I can think of is how everyhting is so over saturated. It makes for competition, but seriously... The price is right already and the current distributors are fine, there shouldn't be more to complicate things. Prices probably won't go any lower, anyways.

This is when people should maybe excercise their power to say "Go away" to people who are only curious about the size of our wallets anyways. I think walmart is doing perfectly fine and they should leave some business to the other guys. I don't care that it's walmart at all, I occasionally get stuff from walmart. But if Microsoft bought a bunch of major software companies and started pumping out computers, wouldn't it be a little unfair? Walmart does something similar, and so do too many other stores. Bahhh, local economies are a thing of the past.

[jizmo]

As soon as these services are available for the rest of the world, I'll let you know :roll:

These things are great. But the majority of the world (i.e. that which is outside of the US) cant access them. I wish I could!

What is it with this trend anyway? I can buy almost anything else from the web, but how bout buying the music I'd like to listen to? No way, mister.

Here I am, holding my money. Waving it. Feeling pretty stupid.

/jizmo

[uvahoos]

Seems to me the biggest problem is that an iPod cannot play a WMA file. This has always been intriguing in that it shows that Apple is trying to dis' M$'s format as much as possible. Conversely, I don't know of any players other than iPod that will play an AAC file. In the end, I chose an iPod Mini simply because of the design, and I own hundreds of actual CD's so I just encoded them myself. No need to download much.

Anyway, if you ask most "experts" out there they will say that MP3 (LAME encoder) or OGG Vorbis are the better formats regardless. The problem is really finding a good format that also supports rights management.

[Craig Horlacher]

I like walmart and I don't like apple. I like walmart simply because they usually have random things I need and at good prices. I don't like apple because they charge a lot and give you little. Walmart's sensoring doesn't bother me - if it bothers you I can understand that.

The AAC format may be the best thing on earth but it seems to me that even ogg vorbis is better supported. The only thing that AAC will work on is iPod's. They iPod, being a typical apple product, is over priced and under featured. If walmart is selling songs for less and they are in a format that I can actually use that perfect for me!

Looking at iPods? Check out hard drive players from creative, or iriver. I love my iHP-140. Same price as an iPod but does a whole lot more. On the other hand, if you really want a player that's extreamly easy to use and all you want to do is listen to mp3's or aac's on it then maybe the iPod is for you:)

[prototype]

Personally I would check out the Walmart site simply because my Dell Jukebox does not support the Itunes format.

I won a whole mess of songs from Itunes in the Pepsi bottle cap promotion ... but what good are they if I can only listen to them on my PC??

-Drew

[Rob Alexander]

* 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

This is similar to iTunes with one major exception. 10 burns per song. Period.

I couldn't care less about liking Walmart more than Apple or losing offensive lyrics, etc. This is the issue to me. I'm not buying any DRM scheme that limits my use of the music... period. (I'm not talking about file sharing, just my own use forever.) Apple does that by using a standard that you depend solely on them for. If they change it one day, you could be out of luck. This 10 CD limits speaks for itself.

I do have one technical question, though. Couldn't you just take one of those 10 CD's and rip a new unprotected WMA from it to bypass the limitations?

[darrylb]

* 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

This is similar to iTunes with one major exception. 10 burns per song. Period.

I couldn't care less about liking Walmart more than Apple or losing offensive lyrics, etc. This is the issue to me. I'm not buying any DRM scheme that limits my use of the music... period. (I'm not talking about file sharing, just my own use forever.) Apple does that by using a standard that you depend solely on them for. If they change it one day, you could be out of luck. This 10 CD limits speaks for itself.

I do have one technical question, though. Couldn't you just take one of those 10 CD's and rip a new unprotected WMA from it to bypass the limitations?

Precisely. This is the way to go with all DRM music. This way you also have something you can play in your standard CD Player if you want to too.

[Tom W.M.]

Even if this weren't Wal-Mart (which means that I'll never touch it), and even if it weren't WMA (which I see as a scary format, being controlled by Microsoft), the 10 burn limit would kill this for me. There is no way that I would pay for something like music and have my use of it impaired in any way (and that includes Apple's AAC with DRM). I rip CDs to MP3 for total compatability over all of the electronics I use (MP3's not going to disappear any time soon, after all.), and I transcode them to OGG Vorbis for listening on a mobile device. I think I'll stick with CDs (sans-DRM) for the time being.

[duncanhbrown]

Wal-Mart's music service works for me as far as it goes.
First, I still have Windows 98se on my home computers, and all the other music download services require a more recent MS OS.
Second, if I can burn up to 10 CD copies of the WMA file, that's probably more than I'll ever need. Plus, CDs are a generally portable format.
Third, I've read that once the WMP (Windows Media Player) does its DRM (Digital Rights Management) process on the WMA file, I can then transfer it onto my storage card on my Pocket PC.
Fourth, the price is right.
:( The only caveat: I searched for a few favorite songs on Wal-Mart, and they weren't available in their catalog at the time I searched. I hope they've expanded their selection since then.

[shawnc]

I believe that most critics are unhappy with WalMart's policy not because they only sell edited versions, but they don't make the distinction that they've done so, so you can't tell.
--janak

I just found this out the hard way. I downloaded a song of which there were MANY versions. One of the version specifically indicated "Edited Version" which led me to believe that without said warning, the cut I downloaded was unedited. Boy was I in for an unpleasant surprise.

This was my 2nd experience with Wal-mart downloads. My 1st experience has resulted in me STILL not being able to play the music on my PPC. I can play it on my desktop, but my Ipaq will not play the songs.

That's it for me. No way is saving a dime worth this hassle. I'm off to someone who will let me download as MP3/WAV.