Playing Wal-Mart Tunes on Your Player

You may have already heard it, but Wal-Mart is entering the online music downloads business. True to its roots, Wal-Mart is selling for less. Individual songs are 88 cents each which is 11 cents less than Apple's iTunes service.

We're certainly not the first to report this, but we want to call out how this affects your ability to play purchased music on your MP3 player. To prevent unlimited copying of download songs, Wal-Mart music files are protected by Microsoft's WMA v9 Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. From Wal-Mart's FAQ:

Can I transfer the music I download to a portable player?
Yes, you can as long as the player is able to play WMA files (note: iPods currently DO NOT play WMA files). Please refer to the documentation that came with your player to determine if it is compatible with WMA-format music.

Here is Microsoft's current list of MP3 players that support WMA9 and would be able to play songs purchased from Wal-Mart. If you have a supported player, this is how you transfer WMA9 songs to your device.

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