I shop at
Walmart all the time. And you know what? I like it. Well, that,
and it's my only nearby retailer, on a local landscape dominated
by motels and mini-golf. So when WalMart announced a music
download service to compete with iTunes, I figured that it
would be competent and serviceable while lacking most of the
amenities
that make iTunes such a pleasure to use. But would it be more
like a budget motel without turn-down service, or more like
a mini-golf place that lacks putters and makes you use tree
branches to hit the ball?
Knowing that
Mac users are highly unlikely to dump iTunes in favor of Walmart
anyway, the nation's largest retailer
has decided to limit its service to those same Windows users
who have just now finally gotten their hands on iTunes. Which
are they likely to choose? WalMart is eleven cents cheaper
per song. I know that if I saw two gas stations offering the
same-quality fuel, I'd probably drive a little further to get
to the 88-cent station...but not if the place was falling to
pieces, or extremely difficult to get to, or a hassle to use
the pumps,
or if the gas didn't work with my favorite kind of car. Well,
rather than making assumptions about the nature of the beast,
I decided
to try it out for
myself. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to
play back anything I bought (Mac users can play samples but
not full songs, thanks to DRM), I purchased a song I already
owned...in fact, one that I had bought through iTunes, for
that matter.
I took
notes
on the experience, and I'm all-too-happy to share it with Mac
users everywhere.
Talk about
your self-sacrificing journalistic integrity. In the name
of giving Mac users a glimpse into what it is to be a WalMart
music downloader, I have laid out a full 88 cents, out my
own
pocket. Sure, I could have used that money for a down payment
on a ham sandwich, but instead I blew that money just so
that I can reliably report to readers that WalMart's music
download service isn't
likely to
become
the
"WalMart of music download services".
Rather than list what all is missing or inferior or more
difficult in comparison to iTunes, I figured I'd create a head-to-head
comparison
chart
to determine whether it would all be worth
it to save eleven cents per download. WalMart even wins in
some categories. So without further ado,
here's a point-by-point comparison of iTunes vs. WalMart:
Price
iTunes: 99
cents per song, 9.99 per album
WalMart: 88 cents per song, 9.44 per album
Distinction: Walk through WalMart and
count the number of products that have an "8" in their
price. No really, you'd be amazed. Try it some time.
Winner: WalMart
Brand Name
iTunes:
"iTunes
Music Store"
WalMart: umm...
Distinction: iTunes Music Store actually has a
name.
Winner: iTunes
Website
iTunes: iTunes.com
WalMart: musicdownloads.walmart.com
Distinction: "iTunes.com" works even for
those who type it with a capital "I".
Winner: iTunes
Interface
iTunes: purchase
music from directly within your music software
WalMart: purchase music from a website,
have fun getting into your software
Distinction: You know, it's nearly 2004,
and web-based interfaces still suck.
Winner: iTunes
Listening
to samples
iTunes: click
on sample, plays seamlessly within iTunes, you don't even know
you're accessing the Internet
WalMart: click on sample, it downloads
to a stub file on your desktop that launches WMP, which
you get to close manually and then trash each stub file from
your desktop manually
Distinction: Only the iTunes samples aren't
more trouble than they're worth. But the mess of stubs
created by WalMart should be motivation for you to finally clean
up your desktop.
Winner: iTunes
Purchasing
iTunes: click
one button
WalMart: click "add to cart", click "view
cart", on a pop-up window click "checkout", then you get
to click "download now" once for each song purchased
Distinction: Perhaps WalMart should copy
Apple by licensing that one-click technology from Amazon?
Winner: iTunes
Delivery
of Purchased Song
iTunes: song
automatically appears in iTunes, instantly catalogued and playable
WalMart: song downloads to your desktop,
site provides instructions for creating a folder for storing
all of your downloads, leaving you to figure out how to
get the song into your favorite jukebox software
Distinction: You know, I think even LimeWire
is easier than WalMart on this one...
Winner: iTunes
MacOS
compatibility
iTunes: works with
MacOS X
WalMart: none
Distinction: Not that any self-respecting
Mac user would bypass iTunes anyway, but this just plain
bad karma. Excluding Mac users is usually the first step
toward folding up entirely.
Winner: iTunes
Windows
OS
compatibility
iTunes: works
with Windows XP and 2000
WalMart: works with everything down to Windows
98
Distinction: It's easier for your jukebox
software to be compatible with older OS's, when your jukebox
software doesn't even exist.
Winner: WalMart
File
format
compatibility
iTunes: AAC,
as well as mp3, QuickTime, and just about everything but WMP
WalMart: WMP
Distinction: WMP works with more hardware
players, but everyone and their mother wants an iPod (not
a knockoff) for Christmas, and presumably wants their music
to, you know, actually work with it. It's easy to change
download services, harder to change hardware players once
you own one. iPod owners aren't going anywhere near WalMart's
service.
Winner: arguments for both
sides, but...iTunes
Ease
of registration
iTunes: standard
account creation, credit/debit card signup
WalMart: standard account creation, credit/debit
card signup, terms of service is agreement is 12 screens
long but can be bypassed with (finally, they implement this)
one click
Distinction: LimeWire's registration was
quicker than either of these guys ;)
Winner: wash
Annoying
sign-up requests during registration
iTunes: iTunes
news, Apple news
WalMart: WalMart news, photo lab news, and
I'm not making this one up: fishing news
Distinction: It's hard to say, since Apple
doesn't sell fishing gear.
Winner: iTunes
Integration
with corresponding digital device
iTunes: music
automatically syncs from iTunes to iPod, effortlessly
WalMart: uh, what digital device?
Distinction: You figure it out.
Winner: iTunes
Music
selection
iTunes: 400,000
tracks
WalMart: roughly half that
Distinction: If you buy all 400,000 tracks,
then I hope I'm on your subnet.
Winner: iTunes
Celebrity
playlists, online gift certificates, essential collections,
AOL account compatibility, audio book availability
iTunes: yep,
yep, yep, yep, and yep
WalMart: nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope
Distinction: It's still early in the game,
WalMart might steal some of these ideas later.
Winner: iTunes
Digital
rights management
iTunes: three
computers, infinite CD burns, unlimited devices
WalMart: one computer plus the ability to
"back up" to
two other computers (not sure what that really means), ten
CD burns, unlimited devices
Distinction: I'm impressed with how close
WalMart came to matching iTunes. But is Windows really so
unreliable that you feel compelled to back up your music twice?
Winner: really close, almost a wash, but...iTunes by
a kilobyte
Overall
iTunes: nearly
everything you could ever want from a music download service
WalMart: laborious, clunky, featureless,
doesn't work with the most popular mp3 player, leaves you
with eleven cents per song left over in your pocket
Distinction: WalMart's download service
would probably seem bearable if iTunes for Windows didn't
exist. But
unfortunately for WalMart, it does. WalMart's only angle
here is to drive customers to walmart.com anyway, in the
hopes that they'll buy something that's actually profitable.
This amounts to yet another free pass for Apple, which
still awaits
its first
legitimate
competition.
Winner: it's not even close...iTunes by
a Gigahertz
Oh, and the
WalMart track I bought that I never got to listen to, if you
must know: "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" by R.E.M.
It's a cool song about
Dan Rather
being assaulted by a mentally ill individual who thought that
CBS was broadcasting signals into his brain, and wanted to
know the frequency
to turn them
off. No, I'm not making that up. To his credit, Dan Rather
refused to give up the secret frequency, but we're pretty sure
that it was being broadcasted in WMP format. Readers can feel
free to reimburse
me for the near-dollar that I pissed away on a
song
that I
already owned. ;)
You all know
the drill by now: give
me a
shout,
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