In general, I don't have a problem with Walmart. I buy school supplies and small appliances there on a regular basis. So when Gerald told me that Walmart was now selling music online for 88 cents a song, I figured I'd take a look.
But here's what the technical requirements FAQ has to say:
Can I play music from Walmart.com Music Downloads on my Macintosh∆ computer? No. Music Downloads from Walmart.com are not compatible with any Macintosh computer. The music that you download requires Digital Rights Management 9 (DRM 9) software, which is not compatible with the Macintosh operating system.
And it appears that the WMA/DRM9 software has far more problematic restrictions than Apple's AAC encoded files. You can't transfer the songs to another computer, for example. (The AAC-encoded files can be placed on up to 3 computers, and de-authorizing one and re-authorizing a new one is fairly easy.) You can only burn a given song to CD 10 times (with AAC, you can burn a given playlist up to ten times, but the song can be placed on an unlimited number of playlists).
So I'll be sticking with the iTunes music store for the time being; I'm not willing to give up the flexibility of their DRM, or the ability to use my iPod.
Yeah, I can't think of any reason why one would have a problem with Walmart. Who cares if they use illegal labor practices when you can save a few dollars on pencils?
spare a thought for the REST of the world - we can't even buy songs from the iTunes music store. the lack of action, information and explanation from Apple over this is enough to make sure that I probably never will.
The rest of the world continues to buy Mac's, upgrade their OS's etc and all of these things are sold partially on the iLife software - a lot of which is unusable outside the US.
Anyway,
Pete. ;)
In case you need another reason, Walmart only sells the "clean" versions of explicit albums.