Wal-Mart's New Online Music Service Targets Rapidly Shrinking Audience
from the is-there-any-demand? dept
Wal-Mart is making some news today for launching a new online music service. They already had an old iTunes wannabe store that hasn't really gotten that much attention, despite being cheaper than iTunes. The difference in this service, though, is that it's for people who don't want to download or burn music to a CD. Instead, you pick the songs you want and they'll send you a CD. In other words, they're targeting a rapidly shrinking market: those without broadband and those without CD burners -- and doing so with a product that isn't particularly price competitive. Other companies have tried similar offerings and they failed pretty quickly, so you have to wonder if Wal-Mart can make this one work. It's sort of like their recent decision to offer CD burning kiosks in stores. Even if it's been done (and failed) many times before, that doesn't mean Wal-Mart can't jump into the space as well -- but it also doesn't mean it will be successful.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
