Bad news for folks who purchase their MP3s from Wal-Mart. The world’s largest retailer chain will stop its MP3 business by the end of this month, August 29th. The company didn’t give a reason for ending the sales of MP3s other than saying it was a “business decision.” Wal-Mart’s MP3 business began back in 2003 when the company decided to compete against Apple’s iTunes. Since then the number of competitors Wal-Mart had to square off against have grown immensely.
Besides iTunes, Wal-Mart has to compete against stores like Amazon, subscription-based services like the recently launched Spotify, and other free music services. And even though it is the largest retailer chain in the world, it looks like the company can’t sustain the fight anymore and dropped out of it before it was too late.
Customers who have purchased digital music from Wal-Mart through the site may still use it to continue managing their music. Hopefully they’ll have some sort of closing down sale the week before they stop selling MP3s for good. How many of you will miss purchasing music from Wal-Mart?