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Walmart Music Store - Beta Testing

Within a year there will be a huge shakeout in the online music industry. There is absolutely no way more than a couple companies can survive, because they are all following half of a business model, and it's not the profitable half.

Apple will continue to succeed and sell iPods. If a person is concerned about online music working with their iPod, they will use the ITMS. I doubt they are going to look around and think, "I want to buy from these other services, I should get something that works with their sites," because those sites don't offer any significant advantages over ITMS, and they have more restrictions and poorer customer service and tech support. The person who is going to buy from Walmart just to save a dime isn't buying an iPod anyways, and even if Walmart can sell them a WMA player or CD burner, they aren't going to make anywhere near what Apple makes per iPod. Walmart will not be making money on this unless they are putting the record companies in the Walton Headlock.

All it's going to take is one or two bad experiences to make most consumers abandon an online music site. I have firsthand knowledge of people who have been burned by the Windows sites and now just use the ITMS, even though they don't even own iPods. iTunes is better than any other music player/organizer out there, so there is only one reason to use another program: WMA. Are there any compelling reasons to prefer WMA over AAC? Not many that I can see.

As an informed consumer and tech-savvy user, I look at the options and I see Microsoft's attempt to control all Windows music sales (he who controls the format controls the distribution), I see Apple with a setup that works incredibly well and is very stable, and the choice seems pretty clear.
 
Re: Re: piece of crap!

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
And unfortunately no one cares since Macs account for a very small % of the market. Walmart and the like are aiming at that 95%+ user base. 2-5% isn't going to make or break a music store.
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Probably most people will be buying music from and for their home computer. And Apple has a much bigger market share in home computers (consumer) than they do overall when you add the millions of PC's in corporations around the country. So the 3% is a false market share for internet music buyers.
 
Re: I forgot to add that Walmart was evil…

Originally posted by machinehien
Them rolling back prices year after year is destroying our economy. If you follow their prices over the years, pretty much every single commodity has gone down in price.

If you do business with Walmart you have to aggree to lower prices year after year in order to fulfill their mission statement of "Rolling Back Prices". In the beginning this had some benificial effects since it forced manufacturers to eliminate waste and streamline their business model. But after a few years of streamlining the only way most suppliers could reduce cost and do business with Walmart is to offshore their entire manufacturing structure to cheaper countries.

Almost all of the items sold in Walmart is made in some sweatshop somewhere with an American label on it. Although this was probably inevitable, Walmart at the very least accelerated the whole process by decades when they put the squeeze on the economy like that.
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Walmart was the result of a consumer revolt of sorts. People were whining about prices and inflation and along came Walmart.

Think of them as the French Revolution. Something that was really needed but the implementation wound up going a little pear shaped.

Costs have been going down but so has quality. That is how the other stores survive. That and despite their logistics genius the nature of the beast is that no matter what you are looking for there is a reasonable chance Walmart won't have it stock. In the next few years there is a chance of a supplier revolt of sorts. Where suppliers tired of getting the shaft will stop selling to Walmart.

On the topic of deflation, its not an entirely bad thing. It sucks rocks if have large loans (like a lot of us do) but it is far easier to fix than inflation.

Lower commodity prices tend to drive up wages.
 
Downloaded, poked around, my conclusion?

Sucks donkey doo!!!

Typical Wallyworld, champions of mediocrity. Now if Targay (Target) started doing music maybe I'd give a rat's tuckus.
 
Where's the quality?!

Oh man does this suck the big one. I can't believe how bad the quality is. It may sound decent coming out of my iBook's speakers, but hook it up to decent speakers and you hear way more than 11 cents worth of sound missing.

Hopefully other people will realize that you get what you pay for...
 
Re: Re: No Macs? But what is this?

Originally posted by jettredmont
Heh ... yeah, kinda funny that they mandate Windows-only yet use a screen shot from a non-Windows computer ...

On the other hand, the "Windows Only" mandate may be a temporary and/or late-breaking restriction ...
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Hilarious! They probably used a Mac to design the site or whatever. I've noticed that in most advertising they use the Mac interface (either 9 or X). I guess it just looks a lot better than windoze...
 
Apple should tout the use and superiority of "Dolby" AAC in their ads. Throwing the Dolby name out there will connect it with audio industry in a way "Microsoft" doesn't. Instead of sitting back and being beat up by competitors because the iPod doesn't do WMA, be aggressive in that the competitors don't support the next generation "Dolby" AAC sound encoding.
 
Re: Re: piece of crap!

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
And unfortunately no one cares since Macs account for a very small % of the market. Walmart and the like are aiming at that 95%+ user base. 2-5% isn't going to make or break a music store.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's a simple matter of laziness and/or stupidity on Walmart's part. With the recent update of WMP 9 for OS X, we've got a DRM 9 compatible player.

In education, Macs are approximately 30% of the user base, IIRC. Not exactly insignificant for a target demographic...
 
I don't see too many Walmart types buying a great deal of music online.

Buying music gets to be a expensive hobby, plus investment in a computer and a iPod.

People who are either well off or rely upon having a large collection for DJ'ing and make a return on their investment can afford to buy thousands of dollars of music that they can weed themselves off the radio/streaming and other cheaper ways to get music.

Most people start buying and realize even at 88¢ a song it's going to be a substancial investment.

Apple captured the cream of the crop already because it cateres to the higher end customer better.

Plus they were first and they got the world's best portable player.

The only way I can see it happening on the lower end is if per song prices substancially drop, like to 20¢ a song.

Because a decent collection of 2000+ or so songs (of favorites, not filler) gives enough to provide a true alternative to radio. IMO.
 
albums excuse

i think artists that 'refuse' to sell on itunes on the basis of artistic preference for albums as opposed to individual tracks are just wankers and are refusing to think out of the box. the fact that they had the opportunity to do an 'album' in the first place was that technology let them record an amalgamation of tracks into a coherent artistic album on a magnetic cassette tape big enough to accomodate all of the tracks. well if you're saying that 'artistic' freedom is paramount, then why not just amalgamate the whole album into a single 'track' and sell it on itms for a higher price?? i mean if the artist insists on the tracks being separated and yet sold as an album, there are bound to be tracks that people won't like and won't listen to no matter how much they tout it as a 'whole' artistic package.... the delivery of the music itself is now an artistic medium in itself. So they should get with the program!
 
.
Didn't I see that one coming:

Originally posted by uberman42
Whoa whoa whoa...we are using the term "music artist" too loosely. Madonna = Music Artist? C'mon people!
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As I wrote earlier:
"Now you may argue about Madonna's merit as an artist, but that's besides the point. I'm sure there are many more examples."
 
Re: iPod

Originally posted by Edot
If it doesn't play on my iPod, I could care less! Plus I am sure Apple could afford to match an $.11 decrease in price.
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Yea, Apple might be able to drop it's price to 88 cents, but then Walmart would just drop their price to 69 cents and so on...
 
If it is anything like their retail stores....


They will have 32 servers...but one 3 open at any given time....

The rest will be on break...
 
Well those of you who are complaining that it doesn't work on the Mac just need to ignore their listed system requirements and download Media Player 9. Their songs works as well on OS X in Safari as it does on Windows in IE -- Tried both.

Now comparing to iTMS, on the computer you don't hear much difference. But if you plug into a real stereo, even my untrained ear can tell the difference.

Oh well, the bottom line is, if you like iTMS, keep using it. If you want lower quality at a lower price, well, it works as advertised, even on your Mac. No need to rag on it.
 
Here is something that I think is a bit funny.... AOL and Apple have somewhat teamed up, AOL is selling their AOL sessions through iTMS and AOL distributes their cds at wal-mart. I would love, I am not an AOL user, to see AOL do a promotional lable on the package for AOL sessions at iTMS.
 
BOOOOO the Johnny come latelys......

Interesting how many here believed BUYCRAPPYMUSIC.COM was going to steal iTMS thunder..Then it was napster that would quickly bring iTMS down to a halt....And now, finally, we have Wal-mart.com and their 88 bargain bin prices...No one has come close to Apple's iTMS numbers.....No one.:rolleyes:
 
Re: BOOOOO the Johnny come latelys......

Originally posted by chewbaccapits
Interesting how many here believed BUYCRAPPYMUSIC.COM was going to steal iTMS thunder..Then it was napster that would quickly bring iTMS down to a halt....And now, finally, we have Wal-mart.com and their 88 bargain bin prices...No one has come close to Apple's iTMS numbers.....No one.:rolleyes:
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I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss WalMart. With tens of millions of people in their stores daily, there are countless promotional and tie ins with sales of related products. Free downloads with the purchase a computer, MP3 player, hell, anything they sell. They certainly have the mind share of many.
 
AAC

i wish people would get there heads out of their ass and realise that AAC is NOT a "closed" Apple format. the AAC encoding method is part of the MPEG-4 standards...thats standards folks, as in industry, not very closed that one. it's either that or MP3, a more widely available standard, because it's been adopted by many.

WMA is good (unless you listen to a low bit rate file through a decent hi-fi/mixer, that's were AAC wins hand down i'm afraid), but it IS a closed standard, and it's DRM model was exclusive to Windoze users, that's why the iPod didn't suppport it as Apple knew that Macs wouldn't be able to play them without DRM managment software which M$ hadn't made available to anyone other than Windblows users until the Mac ver of Media Player 9 (see the Wal-Mart bumf for more info - Will my music play on a Mac?)

if i had to choose formats, AAC would be the definative winner without a doubt. lower bit rates, still high quality (128 compared to 192 MP3), smaller files, more iPod battery life, etc...

so the whiners, please read up a little before you stick your 10 cents worth in and remember who IS actually using closed standards. just because it isn't widely adopted yet (MPEG-4 is still in the upper circles of the media industry) doesn't mean it's "proprietory" or "closed".

i'm quite happy to pay the extra dosh for a quality product that i have better DRM options with...cheap things no good, good things no cheap! that's why i bought a Mac, not just because it has a pretty face.

FECKIN WAKE UP AND SMELL THE BS YOU'RE GETTING FORCE FED!!!!
 
Re: Re: Re: No Macs? But what is this?

Originally posted by VIREBEL661
Hilarious! They probably used a Mac to design the site or whatever. I've noticed that in most advertising they use the Mac interface (either 9 or X). I guess it just looks a lot better than windoze...
Click to expand...

Ad agencies' creative staffers tend to prefer Macs, so...
 
Originally posted by Glial
If it is anything like their retail stores....


They will have 32 servers...but one 3 open at any given time....

The rest will be on break...
Click to expand...

And the firewall will be 75 years old -- but very friendly. :D
 
I welcome walmart to the party. Seriously who wants to be the guy who says, o0h yeah my samsung NAPSTER player is so awsome look at it, it doesn't fit in my pocket very comfortably with this freakin antennae, andI buy all my music from the walmart music store and it sounds like crap, I'm so hip. I can see buying DOG FOOD from wall mart. I can see living in the parking lot in my mobilehome/methlab. I can't see me looking them up online to even try to browse their offerings,not even at christmastime.

IF apple keepsup with their promotions advertising, and ipod updates, I really don't see wal mart as threatening their marketshare. I can see them gobbling up musicmatch or buymusic or coka cola music store or microsoft musicstore, but not taking any applesales. if someone wants to really threaten apple they would need to meet them on buying experiance, hardware and sound quality (or performance), and beat them on price. (Like wintel makers have done on the PC side.) I don't see this happening easily. Who would buy music just for their computer anyway? but then again I don't see why anyone would use windows

What really pisses me off though, is that Ive wanted an online musicstore since the beg. daysof napster, Why didn't anyone want to do it until Apple did?! and pleasedon't suggest that target create a music store. these companies need to be regulated putting their handsin too many cookie jars.
 
Originally posted by Sheebahawk
I welcome walmart to the party. Seriously who wants to be the guy who says, o0h yeah my samsung NAPSTER player is so awsome look at it, it doesn't fit in my pocket very comfortably with this freakin antennae, andI buy all my music from the walmart music store and it sounds like crap, I'm so hip.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of people couldn't care less about being cool, if they get a good deal.
 
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