Wal-Mart Enters the Online Music Store Mix

Wal-Mart Enters the Online Music Store Mix

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched an online music store that works with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player. Wal-Mart, which began offering music downloads in March, said that its new store will offer downloads at 88 cents per song and is somewhat of an affiliate of the new MSN Music Store. Rueters reports that the Wal-Mart store is one of several to offer music on Microsoft’s “Digital Media Mall” within its software program for playing audio and visual content.

Microsoft launched its own music download service, MSN Music, on Wednesday, taking direct aim at Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes music service. MSN states that it plans to have 1 million music tracks available, the same number as rival Apple offers, over the next couple of months. MSN also has licensing deals with all five major music labels and around 3,000 indie labels