arstechnica.com— Two of the largest retailers both online and offline are unwittingly teaming up next year to battle DRM. And Wal-Mart's message to the labels appears to be: drop DRM if you want to make more money.
Dec 3, 2007View in Crawl 4
Wal-Mart also has a long history of beating the hell out their (retail) vendors for cheaper products that meet Wal-Mart's own standards. I used to sell Wal-Mart software and one of their people once told me that all the big retail vendors (Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, etc.) were required to maintain an office in NW Arkansas near Wal-Mart HQ with a mocked-up store aisle display. They also push their vendors hard to reduce production costs, or take on more value-add costs themselves which has led to more and more overseas manufacturing (lead-free toys, anyone?), smaller profit margins higher costs for the vendors, and greatly reduced costs for Wal-Mart. WM has become so pervasive that most of their vendors *have* to cater to their demands just to stay in business. How much volume would a few of the major vendors lose if WM suddenly dropped their product lines? Wal-Mart single-handedly revolutionized the retailer/supplier relationship, ultimately helping both sides become more efficient and profitable. The music labels should indeed pay attention.Some info about Wal-Mart and vendors:<a class="user" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n23_v33/ai_15978454">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n23 ...</a><a class="user" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/pricing.html">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walm ...</a>I am no fan of Wal-Mart and still refuse to shop there, but if turning their (IMO bully-like) business practices against RIAA and MPAA members helps us get rid of DRM, more power to them.
infamousatheistDec 3, 2007
Wal-Mart also has a long history of beating the hell out their (retail) vendors for cheaper products that meet Wal-Mart's own standards. I used to sell Wal-Mart software and one of their people once told me that all the big retail vendors (Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, etc.) were required to maintain an office in NW Arkansas near Wal-Mart HQ with a mocked-up store aisle display. They also push their vendors hard to reduce production costs, or take on more value-add costs themselves which has led to more and more overseas manufacturing (lead-free toys, anyone?), smaller profit margins higher costs for the vendors, and greatly reduced costs for Wal-Mart. WM has become so pervasive that most of their vendors *have* to cater to their demands just to stay in business. How much volume would a few of the major vendors lose if WM suddenly dropped their product lines? Wal-Mart single-handedly revolutionized the retailer/supplier relationship, ultimately helping both sides become more efficient and profitable. The music labels should indeed pay attention.Some info about Wal-Mart and vendors:<a class="user" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n23_v33/ai_15978454">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n23 ...</a><a class="user" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/pricing.html">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walm ...</a>I am no fan of Wal-Mart and still refuse to shop there, but if turning their (IMO bully-like) business practices against RIAA and MPAA members helps us get rid of DRM, more power to them.
lolo2007Jan 18, 2008
ntil a single store comes out with DRM free music that's easily sold and compatible with any device, all for a good price, I'll stick to filesharing and torrenting. That said, I'm glad that these companies are trying. <a class="user" href="http://dir.paramegsoft.com/">http://dir.paramegsoft.com/</a> <a class="user" href="http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/3/3">http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/3/3</a><a class="user" href="http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/4/4">http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/4/4</a> <a class="user" href="http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/10/10">http://game.paramegsoft.com/category/10/10</a>
lukaszhFeb 2, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://shoppromotions.us">http://shoppromotions.us</a>