Walmart To Close Online Music Store

UnknowingFool writes "Beginning August 28, 2011 Walmart will close its online downloadable music store. After eight years, Walmart will no longer offer music for download but will still sell physical music formats. Walmart will keep their DRM servers online for customers that purchased their music with DRM. Despite having cheaper music, the store's market is tiny compared to No. 1 and 2, Apple and Amazon respectively."

Re:

[Xacid]

Well I knew they sell "stuff", but really had no idea about the music portion.

Then again "DRM" is enough for me to gloss over such a "service".

Re:Wait, Wal-mart sells stuff online?

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Don't buy food from them either. Don't let them drive all the other grocery stores in town out of business, the way they did all the department stores and mom-and-pops. Don't encourage them.

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[Mashiki]

Oh look. An anti-capitalist.

Re:

[Captain Hook]

How is someone trying to protect one type of store (small local grocers etc) over a different type of store (multinational) anti-capitalist?

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[CrazyDuke]

An economic player choosing whom to and not to do business with of their own free will and voicing the reasoning (or at least rationalizations) behind that choice is anti-capitalist?

Someone needs to let Congress know that K-street is full of watermelons. *cough*

"You are free to do as you are told," eh?

Re:Wait, Wal-mart sells stuff online?

[shutdown -p now]

Exercising one's choice to not deal with a particular vendor is the very quintessence of free market.

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[aix tom]

>And encouraging others to follow in your footsteps because of nebulous, vague, unsubstantiated (and even unstated), claims is what?
Advertising.

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[TheSpoom]

And encouraging others to follow in your footsteps because of nebulous, vague, unsubstantiated (and even unstated), claims is what?

Politics?

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[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Sure, because they provide more jobs and value to the community than all the stores they drove out of business. To say nothing of the manufacturing jobs sent overseas to satisfy their iron-fisted demands for lower prices.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If the community at large prefers to shop at Wal-Mart over the smaller stores, then by definition it IS providing more value to them.

Re:Wait, Wal-mart sells stuff online?

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Ah yes "teh marketz will solve everything!". I hope YOUR job gets shipped overseas. I'm sure YOU wouldn't expect anyone in government to care. Maybe if you became more efficient and worked for less money...

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[Lunix Nutcase]

No, that's not what he said. The point is that if I don't want to shop at your expensive mom and pop store, why should I have to? Because you say I must? Despite what most people will try to claim, a lot of mom and pop shops were crap. Just because something is a small, local store does not mean it's worth a damn.

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[Lunix Nutcase]

And, no, I do not shop at Wal-Mart before that claim comes up. Buying something cheap but it being crap is just as bad as buying something expensive that is crap.

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[arbulus]

The problem is that Walmart sells a large number of its merchandise at a loss. Their prices are artificially low, which makes other stores seem "expensive" by comparison. Small shops who actually depend on their profit margins to make a living simply cannot compete with them. Mom and Pop can't sell anything at a loss or they'd go out of business. Walmart makes it up because they're gigantic. So they run every other store in town out of business because no one can compete with them, and they buy all of thei

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[Lunix Nutcase]

No, when I say they are expensive I'm not doing a comparison to a Wal-Mart. I've gone into numerous local stores that are selling things (DVDs, books, music, electronic equipment) at 25-30% over MSRP that one can easily look up. I've also been in many that have shitty customer service. And like I pointed out, below the post I don't shop at Wal-Mart nor do I support what they do especially when it comes to urban sprawl. I'm just not buying into this romantic nostalgia over mom and pop stores when numerous

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[Aqualung812]

I'm a firm anti-Walmart person, I and totally agree with not just buying stuff local because it is local.

There are a lot of mom & pops that are complete assholes & act like you MUST shop with them anyhow, while they buy their raw materials from Walmart. A local ice-cream shop complained to me about people not shopping local & admitted to me that she buys her stuff from Walmart. Now, I go to the chain Cold Stone.

On the other hand, the local bike shop waited for me to get to his shop 45 minutes

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[lgarner]

In other words, you give your money to those who give you value. Funny how radical that idea seems here.

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[Midnight Thunder]

On the other hand, the local bike shop waited for me to get to his shop 45 minutes after he closed so I could get my bike. Now, I pay higher prices for things like cycling clothes buying them from him instead of some online place. I think of it as a "tip" for such good service.

Indeed. Quality service is sometimes worth paying that extra money for. Also, sometimes its money better spent to buy a quality product than cheap out and buy the cheaper one.

Re:Wait, Wal-mart sells stuff online?

[Trahloc]

Most people, historically at least, on slashdot work in the IT industry. Market instability and absolutely no loyalty from our employers is what we *expect*. Our grandfathers, possibly fathers, are the last generation that believed the places they started working at when they were 18 would be the places they would retire from. I prefer this, perhaps when I have a family and kids and need stability I'll change my mind but my rational mind has no issue with it. If me being unemployed means that the government doesn't put its fingers deeper into my life its worth it.

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[BitZtream]

Those people who used to work stocking the shelves of a bunch of grocery stores or manufacturing widgets in a factory are now free to educate themselves and get a better job.

Thats what happens. We outsource jobs that are shitty and move on to new jobs which are worth more money and almost always easier than the previous shitty job.

The people that say this (and at times, I'm one of them, I love LOCAL hobby shops rather than mail order, I'm an impulse shopper), that they want to keep a bunch of local stores

Re:Wait, Wal-mart sells stuff online?

[jhoegl]

If by Anti-capitalist you mean someone who supports small businesses over the larger, who supports a company with creativity instead of stealing ideas of small businesses, who treats their employees fairly instead of paying men more and women less, who supports competition to better the community, and who does not like the idea that jobs were forced overseas by Walmart to reduce the cost of products sold there causing "slave labor" camps in those respective countries, then yes.... I think that is what he means.

Oh, and I dont shop at Walmart either.

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[rickb928]

I can get all that from Apple, or Nike.

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[eharvill]

I'm not a big fan of Walmart, but it's hard to get better produce than the "local" farmers. Not sure how extensive this is, but I do like the thought - Walmart [nytimes.com]

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[AK Marc]

So the "invisible hand" is required by capitalism, but any actions that are that "invisible hand" are anti-capitalist? How does that work? He's placing a value on a store being in business. Sadly, the cheapest way to get what he wants is likely "anti-capitalistic" charity, to buy from the cheapest place, then donate the savings to the preferred store. The free market does not, and never has, existed in the US, and Americans do not want the Free Market and given the choice of a regulated capitalism or "f

Re:

[sourcerror]

" Lets not forget about the VAT that most EU states have to tax imports and the US is ostracized with the mere mention of a tariff."

I think you're mischaracterising VAT. It's not an import tariff, as it's put on intrernal produced products as well. It doesn't provide internal producers any market advantage.
On the other hand if I order something from an online shop I will have to pay VAT as well.

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[arth1]

Oh look. An anti-capitalist.

You're saying that is if it were a bad thing?

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[drinkypoo]

Amen to that. I wouldn't buy music from Wal-Mart on general principle even if I didn't think they were actually evil because the music in the store is all the bleeped version and I think that is stupid.

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[AvitarX]

Broken windows!

And what do you think "super" markets did to the local grocer?

In large cities super markets are subsidized to accelerate the process (still).

I don't shop at wall mart because it doesn't cater to how I shop, but they are a godsend in rural areas saving hours of time and many dollars.

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[bjwest]

I would dearly love to not buy food in my local Walmart. Unfortunately, my only other choices are a Brookshires and a Save-U-More. Neither of which has the produce selection of Walmart. Both have better meat selections, and I get most of my meat from either of them. Brookshires has just about everything else I need, so I get it there. Walmart has the produce selection, and it's fresher then Brookshires, so I get my produce at Walmart. Save-U-More? Well, they're within walking distance, so I get my mi

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[lucm]

What you propose is to boycott an american company because it drives other american companies out of business with their low prices. Obviously if the prices are so low, it's because [insert something evil here] not because they have created the most efficient distribution network and inventory system in America. (if by something evil you were thinking "getting their low-price stuff in china" then what about your iPad?)

Following your logic, we should boycott Ford because they hurt GM, and Apple because they

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[Belial6]

What? I don't know where you live, but here in the US, Wal-mart does not drive mom and pop department stores out of business. Heck, I have only seen one or two mom and pop department stores in my entire life. You are 50 years too late to start complaining about mom and pop department stores being driven out of business. That act sits at the feet of Sear, Macy's, Gimbles, KMart. It is the other national department stores that Wal-Mart is beating down. The same goes for mom and pop grocery stores. The

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[colinnwn]

My girlfriend grew up in a small town, and was/is really excited when Wal-Mart opened there years ago.

She pointed out that the mom-and-pop stores that got ran out of business generally had limited selection, bad pricing, poor return policies, and only provided employment to their immediate family and good friends. For the rest of the community, Wal-Mart really improved their quality of life, of course at the expense of the local merchants who were doing a less than impressive job.

In before...

[Haedrian]

In before "Its the pirates' fault"

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[guruevi]

It's the media's fault. Both Amazon and Apple have succeeded due to a relatively DRM free environment. I remember some people trying the WalMart site and complaining that they couldn't play it on their particular device because it wasn't blessed by Microsoft. Then they shut down their DRM servers effectively corrupting every customers library, after that they never recovered

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[Winchestershire]

Indeed, right after Walmart began this program, I decided to give it a try. Little did I know that the music wouldn't work on my mp3 player at the time and you couldn't transfer the music from one computer to another (I wanted to play my music on my laptop as well as my desktop). After this, their music service was dead to me and I never looked back. Luckily I only lost about $5 on the test, so I wasn't put too far in the hole over it (basically about the cost of a meal at some fast food place). I am cu

"Walmart will keep its DRM servers online"

[Anonymous Coward]

For how long?

Re:"Walmart will keep its DRM servers online"

[gilesjuk]

Who knows. But really they should be forced to unlock all the music from DRM.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Given that keeping the servers running costs money and that they'll have no revenue from new sales, it won't be long at all.

Dear everyone, this is why DRM is bad: Through no fault of your own, you'll lose access to all of your purchased content and there's nothing to can legally do about it. Sucks to be you.

Re:"Walmart will keep its DRM servers online"

[derfy]

http://xkcd.com/488/ [xkcd.com]

Didn't see it linked yet.

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[Cimexus]

iTunes music only had DRM for the first year or two. It's been DRM-free for a long time now (for music, at least). And in most cases it'll allow you to upgrade old DRMed files to the newer iTunes Plus ones for a small fee.

I buy quite a bit of iTunes music and did a quick scan of my library. Only one old album I have appears to be still DRMed (for some reason ... I suspect because the publisher of that particular album didn't agree to the unDRMing and no longer sells on iTunes).

Re:

[JackieBrown]

It is also more costly for each individual.

Most people I know can't afford to sue Walmart

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[lgarner]

And more costly for the individual. No thanks.

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[ThatsNotPudding]

"Walmart will keep its DRM servers online"

For how long?

Until someone in the break room unplugs it to use the microwave.

Wal-Mart sells music online?

[geekoid]

the more you know. Not that I would ever use their service.

Damn you big business!

[hamburgler007]

There is just no room for the little guy anymore.

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[Asic Eng]

There is: UbuntuOne has a music store, too. No DRM.

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[Lunix Nutcase]

Why? This isn't the first time a music store with DRM has gone out of business. Nor is Wal-Mart's online music store very large or popular. So this will most likely lead to no one realizing anything since almost no one was buying from them anyway otherwise they would still be in business.

Re:

[firex726]

Yea I think there was some smaller but still popular store that went out of business a few years back and had this happen.

Before that it was always a "What if" but then it became a reality, but seems no one learned their lesson.

Re:

[camperslo]

Maybe it was their use of poor oppressed Chinese children, forced to work long hours singing sound-alike versions of so many songs. And those poor people exposed to toxins will removing recyclable bits from old hard drives just to make bandwidth cheaper. And maybe the players getting poor battery life were a problem too. If you stick various 9 volt batteries on your tongue, it's easy to taste the ones with recycled or stale electrons.

Re:

[scdeimos]

To be fair, after RTFA, WalMart did switch to DRM free in late 2007, but never removed the DRM on previous sales.

FTFY

And...

[AngryDeuce]

...nothing of value was lost.

Yet Video Streaming Just Started

[dcollins]

So anyone who jumps aboard their video streaming service announced 2 weeks ago [slashdot.org] can get a glimpse of their future right now, eh?

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[tlhIngan]

So anyone who jumps aboard their video streaming service announced 2 weeks ago can get a glimpse of their future right now, eh?

It's just Vudu.

In fact, VuDu just announced that to get around the App Store payment processor, they launched a web app - so they're streaming movies using HTTP Live Streaming.

Now I just need an HTTP Live Streaming downloader...

Likewise, Amazon has a web-based E-reader. Someone's probably going to write a simple tool to dump DRM-free ebooks that way.

Perhaps Apple's HTML5 over Flash

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[Lunix Nutcase]

Why would they need to keep DRM servers for music that they sell with no DRM? Or are you one of those idiots who missed the memo and didn't realize that iTunes music has been DRM-free for nearly 2 years now?

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Actually iTunes offered DRM free music before Amazon starting May 2007 with EMI tracks. It wasn't until 2009 before all the major studios agreed.

Re:

[Lunix Nutcase]

I understand, but I was using the latter date to stave off the person that would have come along with the grand comeback of "NUH UH THEY WERE STILL SELLING TEH DRM MUSAK IN 2007 and 2008!!".

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[Lunix Nutcase]

No, he would be an idiot for not finding the many free programs that will strip out the DRM.

Walmart had a music store?

[Turmoyl]

I never even knew they had a music store, and would have boycotted it just the same as we have their big box stores if I had.

Still, its ironic that the first time I hear about it is when it's closing.

It ain't easy

[HW_Hack]

Another example that starting AND maintaining a music / media service is not a simple task. First you have to deal with the nuts in Hollywood on DRM and music catalogs etc. --- Then you have to have a coherent vision for your service and superb software --- Oh, and it would be good if you had either a cool device for consumers ... or a seamless way for consumers to get their media to any number of other devices. Lastly you have to have staying power to go on and on and on and on

Love it - hate it - or just u

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[glodime]

Love it - hate it - or just use it ---- iTunes has been there for 10yrs (an eon in tech time) ..... surrender, it just works .....

You misspelled BitTorrent.

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[tibman]

woah woah woah.. 10 years ago iTunes was not something you could buy music with or put music onto a device with. If you would have said "around 10 years" i would give it to you though. I would give you that it could put music onto the iPod.. but not that you could buy music. Wikipedia says the music store opened in April 2003. That was too late. Napster in 1999 changed the way many people got their music. Pirating became too easy! iTunes music store was not very nice in the beginning either. Low bit

close music and open video....humm...

[maverickjesterx]

Now I know i just read last week that Walmart was going to open an online Video store to compete against Netflix and now Amazon. I wonder what makes them think they can succeed at this when they failed with music and now why anyone would trust the service.

User experience

[wrencherd]

Having used the Walmart service a few times myself, I always found it to be a pretty good one.

I remember being surprised at the extent of the catalog they offered, but that was at least more than 5 years ago.

I should say that as highly as I value Apple's hardware––and used to swear by their software (now, not so much, just give us 'BSD for cryin' out loud)––I have never liked iTunes or its store.

Walmart would've done better I think to put those "create your own mix CD" machi