#301663 - 21/08/2007 20:17
Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Wal-Mart is now selling unencumbered 256kbps MP3s from EMI and Universal for $0.94.
I still won't buy anything from Wal-Mart, nor would I encourage anyone else to, but they are (sadly) the #1 music retailer in the US. This might have a significant impact on online music sales long-term.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301664 - 21/08/2007 22:15
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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I wonder if the MP3s are watermarked in any way...
SDMI was cracked pretty quickly but they did have oracles to check against.
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#301665 - 21/08/2007 22:23
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Yes: Quote:
Universal Music Group will include watermarks that can be used to track the potential spread of its new digital rights management-free songs on file-sharing networks, Wired.com reported. The label last week announced a trial whereby it will sell songs free of DRM from a number of retailers. It's still unclear whether the watermark will be unique to each individual purchase, meaning that Universal would know if a particular consumer's purchased track was uploaded to a file-sharing network.
Update: Wired.com reported on Aug. 15 that the DRM-free Universal downloads will not in fact carry watermarks that can uniquely identify individual consumers. Rather, they could potentially be used to generally track when songs are uploaded to file-sharing networks.
I cannot find it in me to oppose watermarking, other than potentially lowering the quality of the file. Personally, I'd never purchase music for download when I don't get physical media and the data is already lossily compressed when it costs basically the same amount as getting the actual CD, so it doesn't really make that much difference to me anyway. If tracks were $0.25 or less, maybe, but it's still about four times too pricy for me right now.
Wal-Mart still only sells the censored versions of albums anyway.
Edited by wfaulk (21/08/2007 22:28)
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Bitt Faulk
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#301666 - 23/08/2007 18:28
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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#301667 - 23/08/2007 18:52
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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The virtual equivalent of trying to traverse the maze of pallet-obstructed aisles at at B&M Wal-Mart.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301668 - 23/08/2007 18:58
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Agreed. It doesn't surprise me.
Although he brings up a good point: The moment when he realized the song he was trying to obtain was more easily obtained on BitTorrent.
When is the record-industry going to realize that we *WANT* to buy our music this way, if only they'd make it easy, inexpensive, and unencumbered?
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#301669 - 23/08/2007 20:07
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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I don't want my music this way I want cds. The only download option I would consider using is one of the subscription services.
I have been listening to more podcasts than anything now though.
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Matt
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#301670 - 25/08/2007 06:20
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
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Whatever man. iTunes $1.29 DRM-free songs. Upgrade your whole collection for $0.30/track. That's a deal in my book.
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#301671 - 25/08/2007 11:54
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
Whatever man. iTunes $1.29 DRM-free songs. Upgrade your whole collection for $0.30/track. That's a deal in my book.
Paying more to use something you already own anyway. Good deal...
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#301672 - 25/08/2007 14:18
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tman]
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addict
Registered: 02/08/2004
Posts: 434
Loc: Helsinki, Finland
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Well, it's really .30 to buy out of a lease....
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#301673 - 25/08/2007 15:59
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: petteri]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
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"But it's just thirty cents", they want you to say. Still seems like a step in the right direction to stop punishing rightful owners with DRM.
I had to grapple with Windows Media Player DRM at work as I migrated my users to new computers. I wasted maybe two hours trudging through vague, oversimplified documentation on how to transfer licenses for CDs accidentally ripped with copy protection enabled. Finally found a definitive answer on some blog for how to transfer the licenses for an entire library (dead simple, takes two steps). All because Media Player somehow reenabled the "copy protection" option that I specifically disabled; probably during an update.
Would have cost less of my time to just pay $0.30.
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#301674 - 27/08/2007 03:15
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tfabris]
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addict
Registered: 30/05/2002
Posts: 695
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Tony, thank you for that link to the article on Medialoper. It provided a useful overview of this painful process, which I will soon be forced by family members to suffer through. It was also nice to see that one of the comments had helpful information on how to use the service via Firefox. There seems to be no talking them out of using this service, but maybe if I made them read this article I'd have more luck.
As for me, I think I'll be ripping CDs for a long time to come. I guess after learning a bit about rippers and encoders a few years ago, I've become rather picky about how the job is done and prefer to do it myself.
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#301675 - 27/08/2007 13:29
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: DeadFire]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31565
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Welcome.
On the promising side, your family members can expect that the buying experience will improve, as Walmart improves their web site. One would hope things like that medialoper article don't fall on deaf ears.
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#301676 - 27/08/2007 14:59
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Wal-Mart is interested in cheapness, not quality. If it costs them more to make it work right than they think they'll sell in additional purchases, they won't fix it. After all, they don't seem to work to correct things that are wrong with their B&M stores.
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Bitt Faulk
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#301677 - 27/08/2007 21:52
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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I don't like the B&M walmart stores much but I have used their online photo printing service a couple times and it was nice. They also have sent emails asking about the experience so maybe the people running the online stuff care more.
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Matt
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#301678 - 28/08/2007 06:05
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Quote:
They also have sent emails asking about the experience so maybe the people running the online stuff care more.
Hmmm
My car dealer calls me after my service to check that everything was ok, but I know from experience that they couldn't care less what the answer is, they are just checking a box to meet a headoffice requirement.
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#301679 - 29/08/2007 02:07
Re: Wal-Mart now offering unencumbered MP3s
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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Could be but I know where I work they take the customer surveys seriously.
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Matt
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