Wal-Mart's New Downloads Play On iPods, Zunes, Cell Phones and More
Wal-Mart is the latest store to jump into the DRM-free music sales game, offering the same digital-rights-management-free tracks from EMI and Universal that are sold through the iTunes Plus, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and other online music stores. (DRM is a system of adding a small amount of data to an audio file, which puts draconian limitations on copying, burning, and playback of the material -- essentially this means you can't play your purchased music on more than one kind of portable player.)
The giant retailer's latest move means that, say, tracks by Norah Jones, Keith Urban, Barrio Fino, Amy Winehouse (pictured), or Bon Jovi, among other EMI and Universal acts, will be playable on everything from iPods, iPhones and BlackBerrys to Zunes, Windows Mobile Smart Phones, and most music cell phones.
What's more, these tunes will only cost $ .94 cents a track (or $9.22 per album), a full 35 cents less than the $1.29 iTunes is charging for its DRM-free tunes. The difference is Wal-Mart's tunes will be in the MP3 format, which plays on pretty much every audio player in existence, while Apple's iTunes Plus tracks are in the AAC format, which is of slightly higher audio quality (but plays on a smaller number of players).
In what is definitely a sign of the music industry's desperation, these easy-to-copy-and-pirate tunes are being virtually given away. The idea is this -- people who are nice law-abiding citizens or who just don't feel like dealing with the Wild West of illegal-file-sharing sites will flock to these attractively-priced, unshackled tracks.
For a full explanation on how DRM-free tunes work and where you can find and purchase these tunes, check out USA Today's newsy primer on the subject.
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