Wal-Mart's New Online Music Service Targets Rapidly Shrinking Audience
from the is-there-any-demand? dept
Wal-Mart is making some news today for launching a new online music service. They already had an old iTunes wannabe store that hasn’t really gotten that much attention, despite being cheaper than iTunes. The difference in this service, though, is that it’s for people who don’t want to download or burn music to a CD. Instead, you pick the songs you want and they’ll send you a CD. In other words, they’re targeting a rapidly shrinking market: those without broadband and those without CD burners — and doing so with a product that isn’t particularly price competitive. Other companies have tried similar offerings and they failed pretty quickly, so you have to wonder if Wal-Mart can make this one work. It’s sort of like their recent decision to offer CD burning kiosks in stores. Even if it’s been done (and failed) many times before, that doesn’t mean Wal-Mart can’t jump into the space as well — but it also doesn’t mean it will be successful.
