Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Walmart: The Dell of Online Music Retailing
Posted by Pat Logsdon in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 05:00 PM
"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.
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."
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.
Do you see this service as being a credible alternative to iTunes? Or even to Napster?
