The Change Mariner

Wal-Mart to Flex Muscles in Music Downloads?

ECommerceTimes:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly is looking at beginning to sell digital music downloads by year's end, raising the prospect of new price competition in the online music market. That could significantly reduce the allure of unauthorized free music downloads.

According to the New York Post, Wal-Mart has been in talks to license music from record companies for its own downloading service on Walmart.com. The service is expected to be modeled after Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store that allows customers to download songs for 99 cents each.

Wal-Mart Stores didn't confirm its entry into the market Thursday. The Bentonville, Ark., company is the world's largest retailer and the top seller of music CDs, controlling 14 percent of worldwide music sales.

"At any given time we are looking at new services and products, and digital services is one of those things being looked at," said Cynthia Lin, a Walmart.com spokeswoman in Brisbane, Calif.

Some analysts said rumors about Wal-Mart's entry into online music have been circulating for some time.

In doing so, Wal-Mart would enter a growing field of competitors that includes for-pay providers such as Apple's iTunes, Roxio's Napster (only the brand name of the free Napster remains) and RealNetwork's Rhapsody, as well as free music sites such as Kazaa and Grokster.

By some estimates, about 500 million unauthorized copies of songs are downloaded each month. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major music labels, filed lawsuits earlier this year in response, accusing 261 people of sharing copyrighted music.

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