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August 21, 2007

music

Wal-Mart rolling back DRM all over the place

Posted Aug. 21, ’07, 9:09 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Music

Scary Wal-MartThere’s something just not right about that yellow Wal-Mart smiley face guy. He’s just too happy—probably hopped up on goofballs, or Bluetooth, or whatever it is kids are doing these days.

While my innate sensibility has prevented me thus far from dropping any of my dough into the Walton family coffers and funding their plans for world domination via low prices and robotic sharks, the fact that they’re hopping on the DRM-free gravy train should not be seen for anything other than it is: a big deal.

Why? Simple: Wal-Mart’s ideology is all about the bottom line. If they’re selling DRM-free music, it’s because they think they can make money on it. Lots of money. We’re talking big sacks of cash with dollar signs on the side. You don’t get to the point where five of the fifteen richest people in America share the same surname without a wee bit of business savvy.

Furthermore, they’re totally right. Consider that they’ve just insinuated themselves into a vast market into which they previously had no entrée—to wit, the owners of those 100 million iPods out there (although it’s still not particularly friendly to Mac users). And, since they’ve got access to Universal’s DRM-free content, which we’ll remind you isn’t available on iTunes, we’re going to have our first opportunity to see whether or not the lack of DRM is as big a motivation as some (including myself) have argued, or if the ease of use and brand identity of iTunes will trump ethical considerations. Wal-Mart’s even sweetened the pot by selling its DRM-free tracks and albums, encoded at the same 256kbps bit rate, at slightly lower prices than iTunes’s standard rates (though you’ll notice that they’re more than the WMA files they’ve already been selling).

People will argue about whether or not Steve Jobs was sincere in his call for axing rights management, but let’s put it this way: you’re not going to see a Walton putting their name on any sort of open letter about the evils of the DRM.


4 Comments

Walt said:

Maybe I'll give it a shot. That's if I'm looking for my latest song on iTunes and it's not there. I'll go search Walmart and see if it happens to be Universal. I'll probably try one and see how well it plays with iTunes. If it doesn't, count me out.

August 21, 2007 9:51 AM
fcgrabo said:

Wal-Mart's new servis does not support Mac OS X.

August 21, 2007 11:17 AM
Scott said:

Unbelievable. According to the FAQ, I can't even download MP3 files directly to my Mac. How is this supposed to compete with iTunes?

http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet/HelpTopicServlet?topicIndex=1

Important: At this time, it isn’t possible to shop and download songs directly from Wal-Mart Music Downloads to a Macintosh computer. However you can transfer the MP3 files from a Windows computer to a Macintosh using a CD, other storage device or email.

August 21, 2007 12:46 PM
Kelmon said:

And this is it - if Walmart doesn't offer a suitable means of getting the music into iTunes then they can take this concept and introduce it to a location where the sun is uncommon. Not supporting OS X or Linux is absolutely unbelievable when you no longer need to be be wrapping these files in Windows DRM. As for media players, the only one that this service integrates with is Windows Media Player, which is totally useless if you want to listen to your "iPod Ready" music on an iPod.

Congratulations on not understanding the requirements of your project, Walmart.

August 21, 2007 11:36 PM

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