Posted 10/29/08 at 03:21:12 PM by Alex Castle

Though Walmart’s transition to a 100% DRM-free, MP3 music store hasn’t been without some growing pains, it appears the company is dedicated to growing its share of the digital music market, as it has announced several aggressive marketing maneuvers for its "new and improved" music store.

The re-launched music store will offer top-25 tracks for $0.74 each, less than the standard 94 cents per track. They’re also offering a free track every week from lesser-known artists and albums. Every physical or digital CD sold by Walmart will include a waver for a free digital track of the customer’s choice. Additionally, the retail giant is offering exclusive “Soundcheck” content, including performances by acts like Nickelback and Beyonce.

Walmart is also touting integration with social networking sites, and a reworked music search engine. With 3 million tracks available right now and growing, it seems like Walmart is looking to take back its title as the nation’s biggest music-seller.

What are your thoughts on the Walmart online music store? How does it measure up to the iTunes store? Let us know after the jump.

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drm, Software, wal-mart, online music store

Posted 10/21/08 at 05:01:39 PM by Andy Salisbury

I feel like my eyes have just been opened for the very first time. This iTunes store junkie has finally seen the true light when it comes to buying music online, and it comes in the form of Lala.com.

When buying a song on iTunes I find myself searching around the very easy to navigate store, buying music at a reasonably priced 99 cents per song, and downloading a file with attached DRM. I’d always accepted it, it didn’t seem unaccommodating. Now that I’ve had a chance to check out the eminence that is Lala.com, I can’t ever see myself going back to iTunes again. Not to say that iTunes is bad, but Lala is just that good.

Why is Lala good? First of all, they sell MP3’s for 89 cents without any attached DRM (seriously!), or you can buy a streaming only version for just 10 cents (which will go towards the purchase of the full version). Albums themselves come at the price of $7.49, less than both iTunes and the legendary price-slashing Amazon.

Lala also allows you to listen to a song completely before you decide to buy it – and there’s plenty to listen to. Lala offers tunes from the four major record labels and 170,000 independents. New members are also allowed to pick up their first 50 streaming songs for free, no strings attached – no credit card, no nothing.

Say you’re like me, you’re packing a hefty amount of songs on your computer. You’ve purchased some from iTunes with that nasty DRM attached and MP3s that you’ve ripped straight of CDs. What do you do? You use Lala’s safe to use uploader! It scans the music on your computer’s hard drive, identifies the songs you’ve got and tosses them onto your library so that you can listen to them anywhere. Users accustomed with MP3.com’s MyMP3 service will already be familiar with this concept.

I could quite literally go on and on about how great this service really is, but if you use it for even just a little bit you’ll realize its potential on your own. Be sure to drive your browser over to Lala’s web site, and sign up straight away (and keep your eyes glued to your iPhone’s app store, they’ve got an app on the horizon). And remember, cash in those 50 free songs!

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Software, itunes, music, amazon, online music store, Lala

Posted 10/11/08 at 07:34:08 PM by Justin Kerr

Intense customer backlash has forced the online music arm of Wal-Mart to reverse its position on its controversial plan to deactivate all DRM authentication servers on October 9th. The move would have left countless customers with music files that could never be re-authenticated should they wish to play them on a new PC. Deactivating DRM server’s isn’t a new trend, but the announcement differed from other vendors simply because of the sheer lack of notice customers were given to backup music. The first notice only went out on September 28th giving a mere two weeks warning. For those who aren’t sure if they are affected, the DRM servers are only necessary for authenticating tracks purchased prior to February 2008. In February the retailer made the popular shift from DRM-ed WMA’s to unprotected MP3’s. 

Even though the servers are safe for now, the vaguely worded email from Wal-Mart continues to urge customers to make backups of their music by burning them on CD. Music burned to an audio CD can be copied back to your hard drive DRM free using many free applications such as iTunes, but unfortunately not without an unavoidable loss of quality. No new dates are given for the server deactivation but the email doesn’t suggest the retailer’s commitment to the DRM servers will be long term. With the industry shift to copy protection free music well underway, this and other similar announcements are a lesson to us all. No authentication server (Apple included) is likely to be around forever. Now is as good a time as any to backup your tunes. 

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drm, digital music, wal-mart, consumer electronics, online music store

Posted 08/25/08 at 06:59:09 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Just before the Beijing Olympic Games drew to their spectacular coda, another case of internet censorship in China came forth. The Associated Press had reported last week that Chinese users were not able to access Apple’s iTunes website.

According to speculation, the ban came after a popular pro-Tibetan album, Songs for Peace, went on sale on iTunes on August 8. On Friday, Apple acknowledged the sudden unavailability of iTunes in China and said that it was investigating the matter. However, it is not known whether or not access to iTunes has been resumed there.

There was always a disconcerting political undertone to the Beijing Olympic Games besides a few controversies in the middle. Nevertheless, it was a great show with some scintillating performances by some of the world’s best sportspersons. I choose to be apolitical but you are free to voice your unbridled opinions in the comments section.

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Software, Internet, apple, itunes, china, online music store, web, ban, beijing olympics, songs for peace, tibet

Posted 06/30/08 at 08:52:29 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Here is a bit of news that might have music lovers rhapsodic. RealNetworks-owned online music service Rhapsody has MP3 music sans any Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. This entails that users can do anything with the music they buy. If you thought that piracy fearing labels would never back such an initiative then you were wrong.

Major labels will continue to make their music available through Rhapsody. They perceive DRM protection to be some sort of a sales impediment as it deters many music lovers from buying such music online – scarecrow effect. Rhapsody’s online music store offers a single song download for $.99 and an entire album for $9.99. Rhapsody has certainly taken the attack to iTunes.

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drm, Software, apple, itunes, iPod, Rhapsody, online music store, realnetworks