Wal-Mart Now Offers DRM-Free MP3s

Prices range from 94 cents for a single 256kbps MP3 track to a little over $9 bucks per album.

The war for dominance of the digital music market continues to heat up with the launch this morning of Wal-Mart’s new online music download store, and as usual, it appears that Wal-Mart is the “low price leader.”

The store isn’t MAC or Linux compatible, making it somewhat iPod and iPhone unfriendly, but MP3s are MP3s and most should have no problem getting them transferred to such devices.

It also so far includes music from several major record label catalogs including EMI and Universal, meaning that popular artists like The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, KT Tunstall, Amy Winehouse, and Maroon 5 are available.

“As we consistently strive to help our customers shop smart at Wal-Mart, our new ‘DRM-free’ MP3 digital tracks give them the ease and flexibility to play music on virtually any device at a great value,” said Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart’s senior director and divisional manager for digital media.

Wal-Mart will continue to offer its existing WMA-format music downloads. Thus, customers may select the option of MP3-format downloads at 256 kbps for $0.94/track and/or WMA-format downloads at 128 kbps for $0.88/track.

Some interesting finds I found:

• “Soundcheck Series“($3.88 – $5.64): Exclusive live performances by artists that include, Maroon 5, Bon Jovi, Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, Joss Stone, and others. They average about 4 -6 songs each, but they sound downright new, refreshing, and all around awesome! If there was ever an album I’d buy it’d be from this series. Check out the John Mayer Soundcheck to see what I’m talking about.
• Nirvana – “In Utero”($5.88); An all around classic, and must have for anybody’s music collection.

It may not be the cure-all and end-all to piracy and illegal music file-sharing, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

By the way, the new store doesn’t work in Firefox so you’ll need IE to check it out.

[WAL-MART MUSIC DOWNLOAD STORE]

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