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The Warner Music Group family of labels has widened its full catalog mp3 offering to include WalMart.com. Previously Amazon was the only North American based download provider with the catalog.
Hypebot reported yesterday that WMG was about to broaden its DRM-free program to include other sites. Last month WalMart drop all tracks from WMG, Universal and Sony BMG and took its digital store DRM-free. EMI and a limited number of indies provided content until this morning when WMG effectively doubled WalMart.com's catalog.
As it does at brick and morter, WalMart is...
competing on price with all tracks a 94 cents (up from 88 cents last month) and album downloads from $7.98 - $9.22. (By contrast iTunes generally prices at $.99 track/$9.99 album and Amazon's offers variable pricing that is occasionally lower than WalMart but often hits $.99/$9.99.) Indie music plays only a minor role on WalMart.com also mimicing in-store content.
WMG's move puts pressure on the other label groups and download stores to move more rapidly towards all DRM-free. At yesterday's Digital NARM, a spokesperson for Napster hinted that they would go DRM-free within a month.
Universal DRM Free Music Speeding UpEntire EMI Catalog DRM FreeHas the DRM Free Experiment Failed?DRM Hurts Battery Life? Sony BMG, DRM Free, Heads To AmazonDRM Spells Trouble for Apple, iTunesEmerging Artists Turn to MP3 Blogs for MarketingSteve Jobs Speaks Out Against DRMWal-Mart Launches DRM- Free DownloadsEMI Drops DRM Restrictions On iTunes
