March 23, 2004Retail and Online MusicWal-Mart starts selling songs online Tuesday March 23, 02:30 PM By Reuters, CNET News.com The US retail giant has officially open the doors of its online music store, which charges 88 cents a song Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, says that it has officially launched its online music store, which it began testing in December. The store, which allows customers to download a song from the Internet for 88 cents (48p), has added new artists and been expanded by 50 percent, the retailer said on Tuesday. Wal-Mart, whose service competes against 99-cent songs from Apple Computer's iTunes music store, said that for the next two months it would be the exclusive supplier of songs from artists carried by the Curb Records label. Curb's artists include country music stars Tim McGraw and LeAnn Rimes. Wal-Mart said its site would also carry exclusive songs from artists including Jessica Simpson, Shania Twain and Shakira. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment on whether the music service is profitable. Apple's song service loses money. Analysts have said that the goal for Wal-Mart is to bring more people to its Web site. Even if the music service sold 100 million songs, that would add up to just $88m -- insignificant for a company that recorded nearly $260bn in revenue last year. Wal-Mart is the dominant force in US retailing, but it was relatively late to the dot-com world and has been adding online services in hopes of boosting its Web presence. It recently started offering contact-lens prescription and DVD-rental services. Wal-Mart starts selling songs online |