CNN Says Ho-Hum To Wal-Mart's Music Download Service

by , 2:00 PM EST, January 2nd, 2004

Apple has never really been afraid of competition. In fact, Apple's attitude toward competition is so nonchalant that one wonders if the company bothers looking over their shoulder at all. In the music download service arena, for instance, there seems to be a new player entering the field every week. One of the latest entrants is Wal-Mart with its WMA based, Windows only service, and Netscape News has posted a review. Here's an excerpt from the article, Wal-Mart Music Download Service Mediocre:

In launching its music service, Wal-Mart enters a world ruled by Apple Computer Inc., purveyor of the iTunes online song service and the iPod music players. The landscape is thick with iPods waiting for tunes.

So while Wal-Mart's price is right - songs for 88 cents apiece - it's only for PC users equipped with Windows 98 or better. There's no support for Apple or Linux machines.

For your 88 cents you'll get a file in the Windows Media Audio format, stuffed with some license requirement verification that ``phones home'' to make sure you're the authorized listener who has rightfully purchased the tunes. You can also buy a complete album for $9.44. That's cheaper by 11 cents per song and half a buck per album than iTunes and competitors MusicMatch and Napster, both of which, like Wal-Mart, use the WMA format.

The article highlights several sore points with Wal-Mart's music download service, including one which could get more than just the article's author steamed;

Here's one catch that bugged me. The songs I listened to at work would not play initially after I downloaded them again at home. I had to call Wal-Mart's toll-free customer service number and have the license reactivated for that song for my second computer.

If I had a third computer, I'd have to call again.

There has to be a way to automate that process. Consumers are going to expect more consistency and ease of use.

Read the full article at Netscape News for more information.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Services that use Microsoft's WMA format use the same basic ideology that is used for Windows and PCs; Microsoft provides the basic software infrastructure and the company offering the service provides the means to use that infrastructure. In this case, Wal-Mart's music download service (MDS), requires that the potential music buyer has all of the pieces and parts that will allow him or her to download, then transfer the purchased music to a portable player. This strategy looks great on paper, and may even be executed well in real life, but there is no completeness in this systems as with iTunes, iTMS, and iPod. For 10 cents less per song and some other inconveniences, some people will think the money saved is worth it, just as they do with Windows. As we all know, though, cheaper in the computer world is seldom better.

Wal-Mart Music Download Service Mediocre