Axiomatic Breakfast

From Rolling Stone (via slashdot) Wal-Mart Wants $10 CDs. The price breakdown of a $15.99 CD at the bottom is very interesting.

Excerpt:

In the past decade, Wal-Mart has quietly emerged as the nation’s biggest record store. Wal-Mart now sells an estimated one out of every five major-label albums. It has so much power, industry insiders say, that what it chooses to stock can basically determine what becomes a hit. “If you don’t have a Wal-Mart account, you probably won’t have a major pop artist,” says one label executive.

Along with other giant retailers such as Best Buy and Target, Wal-Mart willingly loses money selling CDs for less than $10 (they buy most hit CDs from distributors for around $12). These companies use bargain CDs to lure consumers to the store, hoping they might also grab a boombox or a DVD player while checking out the music deals.

Yippee! Today, Apple released “iTunes for Windows”:http://www.apple.com/itunes/. My first Purchase? The ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ soundtrack!

Jennifer over at “scriptygoddess.com”:http://www.scriptygoddess.com/ has some very good information regarding “buy.com’s attempt at providing pay-per-download music”:http://www.scriptygoddess.com/archives/004057.php Not only did she encounter technology problems that prevent her from using the product she purchased, it looks like buy.com’s privacy policy amounts to ‘we are going to sell your info whether you like it or not.’

Summary: Wait for apple’s iTunes to come out for the PC.

Salon has a good article about “Apple’s new iTunes service”:http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/04/29/itunes/index_np.html. It sounds like someone might actually be able to save the Music Industry from itself.