Amazon MP3 and iTunes—the only two online music stores that really matter—have another competitor to worry about now that Wal-Mart has re-launched its own music store. The “new and improved” (joke: how can something be both “new” and “improved”?) store sells DRM-free MP3s, most of which are encoded at 256kbps; some are only 192 kbps.
Individual songs start as low as 74 cents per song, which makes the new Wal-Mart store the least expensive one in town.
Wal-Mart is also giving away one free song per week. It’ll also toss in a free song for every CD you buy, either online or in the brick-and-mortar store. That little promotion starts next month.
Lastly, because the songs are merely MP3s they’ll work on any operating system—except, maybe, Red Hat 8!
I have no interest in supporting Wal-Mart’s backhanded support of Mac users. I’ll gladly pay an additional .15-.20¢ per song to avoid them. Wal-Mart has shown in the past that they will gladly close up shop on a moments notice if the revenue numbers don’t match their expectations, not that it matters in a DRM-free environment.
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Wal-Mart is an evil company, and I will never support them. You shouldn’t support them either, no matter how low their prices are. Watch the documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price”. For more info, go to http://www.walmartmovie.com/
I never really liked walmart that much so I think I will stick to getting my music online. I don’t mind paying the price for it and I don’t have all the hassles like at walmart.
I won’t be supporting Wal-Mart either. Besides they only sell radio edited CD’s so I am assuming their MP# service will work the same way.
I wouldn’t log onto Wal-Mart if they were giving away mp3s. I’d rather listen to my clock radio AM oldies station than give them a DIME of my money.