Walmart is launching a DRM-free music service, pricing songs at $0.94 and albums at $9.22. Naturally, the service will only offer catalogs from EMI and Universal, each of which has recently announced its intent to offer DRM-free downloads. EMI is currently selling DRM-free music on iTunes for $1.29 per track. Universal doesn’t offer DRM-free tracks on iTunes because it’s pissy that way.
Will this start a trend of decreasing prices? Don’t hold your breath. In my opinion, this will most likely have no effect on the iTunes juggernaut.
iTunes is more than the iPod. iTunes represents an experience. You plug your iPod into your computer. You fire up iTunes, browse the iTunes Music Store (iTMS), make a few purchases, then with the click of a button, the songs are on your iPod and you’re ready to go. People who purchase songs from iTMS are invested in more than an individual song. They’re invested in the user experience, which is easier and more straightforward than anything else on the market. Most iTunes users — rightly or wrongly — don’t care about DRM because under the iPod/iTunes/iTMS system, it just works. And that’s what really matters to them. Click, browse, buy, boom. It just works.
Moreover, the Walmart service only supports Windows 2000, XP and Vista. I don’t know anyone who’d install or fire-up Windows just to save $0.06 – 0.30 per song. Anyone, including those 73 people running Linux full time.
Via Download Squad.
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