BURBANK, CA  [Monday Dec.22.2003]  /WMQT.com/ -- Last Thursday, in an attempt to capture its share of the online music market, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began a test of it's online music service.

The service undercuts other popular online services by offering "hudreds of thousands" of downloads for 88 Cents per song instead of the average per-song price of 99 cents. The songs can be then burned to CD or played on Windows-compatible PCs.

Walmart.com's senior category manager Kevin Swint said "The test phase for this new service is important to gauge customer feedback, so that we can deliver a quality music downloads service that customers will want to use time and time again. We see digital music downloads as a natural extension of the music selection offered in Wal-Mart stores."

Wal-Mart is famous for keeping costs down. The company employed that method in developing the music site but it wasn't clear whether it negotiated lower rates for what it pays for songs.

The site will abide by the same content format as their "brick and mortar" stores, which don't sell "offensive" music. Some songs are flagged as "edited" to denote a song was recorded without offensive lyrics.

The club mix of OutKast's "Hey Ya!" was the top download. Ironically, the No. 9 download was "First Cut is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow.

Wal-Mart refused to stock a Crow's 1996 CD containing the song, "Love is a Good Thing" with lyrics criticizing Wal-Mart for selling guns. Her greatest hits CD is featured on the site with a greatest hits CD by country performer Alan Jackson under the heading "All the Best."

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