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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ok this is a good thing but seriously i wonder how much money they are getting from microsoft? a internet site thats not mac compatible and not firefox compatible either? what the hell. i wont use internet explorer so pretty much i wouldnt use that as a source of music… retarded.
The site claims that it will be Firefox compatible in the “near future” whatever that means.
At least Wal Mart is TRYING to lower the price and offer DRM free downloads(though not TOTALLY DRM free I am sure) ….but it will be awhile before they get the price down to where I would but any tunes from them..a dollar a tune or near a dollar a tune is WAY to much in my opinion.
If you did not have all of FREE p2p to go up against they might be able to charge that much….but I just don’t see any company selling legal mp3’s and making a profit right now.
Not the best site policy. Computer admins work woof to keep users with Firefox for safety then the site suggests a download of Internet Explorer as if to restore IE as the default. IE is on every system anyway and if user or admin want it hidden that’s the way it should be.
It sure is a step in the right direction. Now lower the price per track to $0.50 an they may get rich (or die trying:)
Yes it is just a bit on the expensive side but:
No DRM
MP3 Format
High quality (256 kbps)
Those are all pretty strong incentives. I would consider buying tunes from them. I hope they are massively successful so that the RIAA and all the sites offering DRM infected low quality crap will ge the idea.
Well I hope they drop the price to 50 cents or even 25 cents…THAT would make them successful……guaranteed!
Well we all know whats better then DRM free music FREE MUSIC. Yaar! Pirate Away!