
Walmart, unable to compete with iTunes, is shuttering its MP3 store - nbj914
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/walmart-unable-to-keep-up-with-itunes-shutters-mp3-store/243382/
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ctdonath
"When single tracks sold on iTunes for 99 cents, they sold on Walmart's MP3
store for 88 cents. When Apple offered popular singles at $1.29, Walmart was
able to beat that by five cents, pricing the tunes at $1.24 each."

Seems the convenience of ecosystem integration was worth more than 5-11 cents.

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mtogo
> convenience

> iTunes

iTunes is not what i associate with convenience. My experience tends to be
quite the opposite, in fact.

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tptacek
I don't get it. Is this sarcastic? Did you not buy music in March '03 to get
the basis for comparison? For normal people who do not organize their lives
around user interface critiques, iTMS is _shatteringly_ convenient: type name
of song, click button, listen to song to make sure it's what you want, click
"buy", wait a minute, own song.

~~~
mtogo
The last time i used iTunes was months ago, i'm on Rdio now. My workflow went
more like this:

1\. Open iTunes

3\. Wait 1-2 minutes, literally.

3\. iTunes has crashed, often taking exporer.exe[1] with it.

4\. Restart iTunes and/or windows.

5\. After waiting 2-3 additional minutes for iTunes to start up, it's now open
and i can search for songs.

6\. Search for the songs i want and buy them.

7\. Enter my payment details as Apple has forgotten them again.

8\. Wait 2-3 minutes while the payment is processed.

9\. Something wasn't good enough for Apple. Change something in the huge form
and goto 8.

10\. Done! Download the songs.

YMMV, this is _just my own experience_. For comparison, here's the workflow
with Rdio:

1\. Enter a song or album name into the search box, or pick one from my
extensive library of albums.

2\. Press play and listen to the song.

[1] Yes, unfortunately i do have to keep Windows around to use iTunes.

~~~
tptacek
I like Rdio a lot, and agree that it's more convenient than iTunes (which was
already very convenient, so that's saying something)... when it actually has
the music I'm looking for.

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chuinard
Amazon MP3 has been by far superior to iTunes. I wouldn't say Walmart is
unable to compete with iTunes, I'd say it's unable to make a good MP3 app.

~~~
tptacek
In what way is Amazon superior to iTunes? Just, "not having to use iTunes"?

~~~
kevingadd
Unless your goal is to put songs onto an iPod, the amazon MP3 buying
experience is much simpler. If I want to buy some MP3s and listen to them on
my PC or on my Android phone, I:

Click the buy button on Amazon's site

Wait a moment, the Amazon MP3 downloader starts

Wait a few minutes, the downloader tells me the files are downloaded

I can click once or twice to automatically open the folder where these new
MP3s live

And then I can now listen to them (in my player of choice) or copy them to my
phone. And now that Amazon has their cloud player, I can skip the entire
downloading step and just _listen to them_ on my phone.

 _if_ I used iTunes as my music player of choice, _and_ all my portable
devices were iDevices, iTunes would be more convenient than the Amazon store.
However, I don't, and they aren't. Also, iTunes is still kind of a pile of
shit, so 'not having to use iTunes' alone would be a big advantage even if the
Amazon experience wasn't better in other ways.

~~~
mtogo
It gets better. Amazon will sync your files into your Clouddrive for you
automatically when you buy them, if you want.

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mbesto
My father is a sales rep dealing with large retailers (Sears, Walgreens, etc).
They ALL know this is coming - DVDs, CDs, etc. are dead and online
distribution will replace all things that can go digital.

You know who also knows this? Publishers - and they don't need store
distribution anymore. For example, the video game industry is up in arms right
now because developers/publishers no longer need B&M. In fact, they're just
trying to buy (or develop their own) an online distribution platform. For
example, Bethesda wanting to buy Valve[1].

[1] -
[http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/rumor_bethesda_looking...](http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/rumor_bethesda_looking_buy_valve)

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keithwinstein
It may be a bit hyperbolic to say Walmart was "unable to compete with iTunes."
From what can be gleaned, neither Apple nor Walmart makes much of a profit
reselling songs for 99 cents. Apple, of course, has other reasons to want to
take a loss or operate a marginal music store that helps it sell iPods, but
one can understand why Walmart wouldn't realize the same side benefit.

~~~
Cushman
Isn't that still not being able to keep up? Whether or not either of them
makes a profit on the sale, Apple makes money selling songs as a loss leader,
and Walmart doesn't. Outcompeted.

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battlebee
Are they shutting down the DRM server as well?

~~~
smackfu
For their _MP3_ store??

~~~
benologist
I think the more relevant question is, how do you show you still have a
license for music from a store that doesn't exist anymore?

How do you recover that music if you ever lose a drive or your phone or
wherever the music is?

~~~
eli
You don't.

How do you recover music on a CD that you've lost?

~~~
benologist
It's harder to lose a CD then a phone/ipod/computer. If you've ripped the CD
to your computer the disc/case is just sitting on a shelf till next time you
need it.

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bittermang
The hundreds of thousands of CDs stolen from cars across the nation disagree
with you.

It's also easier to damage or completely disable a CD than it is a
phone/ipod/computer. Short of willful destruction or storage medium failure
will these devices render you unable to access your music. A simple scratch
from using the CD will render it useless. How do you recover your tracks then?

The original point was: as long as the service is running and available, I can
get another copy of my music. Now that the service is going down, it's up to
you to have backups, the original source is gone. This was equated to losing a
disc, and not being able to recover the music you legally purchased because
you didn't have a backup, and the original was gone. A very good point, in my
opinion.

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miratom
Strange journalism, there isn't any quotes in the article that actually cite
competition from Apple as the reason for the closure. Editorialized?

