Tech Review

Every day I try to find a way to help the little guy. I also try to treat my Cubanocast listeners with fine Cuban and Caribbean music. It so happened that I needed a song to complete a post on Cuban Pete and I felt I could kill both birds with one stone by downloading the song from that little boutique store, Walmart.

Follow up:

So, I logged onto Walmart and complied with their request to change to Internet Explorer from Firefox. After a couple of Active X downloads, I was searching...and finding music. Walmart had the version of Cuban Pete I was looking for and one that I didn't know existed. I paid $1.76 for both, downloaded them, and listened. The songs were WMAs which means that they won't play on iTunes (mp3 or AAc only) and were encoded at a middling 128kbps which is enough quality for the 99% of people who aren't audio squids. The Walmart music store leaves a tray icon that you can use to access your downloads. I prefer not having anything installed.

The real reason I used Walmart was because I had heard that the music was free of DRM or copy protection. DRM-free songs have the same qualities as those you'd rip from a cd i.e., you can burn it to cd and play it on more than one computer or music device (Creative Zen, iPod, Zune, etc.). The DRM-free songs cost four cents more ($.92 for DRM-free vs. $.88 for the DRMed version) on the Walmart site, are mp3s which is a universal format, and are encoded at a more audiophilic 256kbps.

I only learned afterwards that not all songs can be be purchased without DRM. The songs have to be from Universal and EMI and the Desi Arnaz and Louis Armstrong albums I needed were from other companies. Therefore, because the songs have DRM protection, I have to play them on a DRM aware music player like the hideous Media Player or, my preference, Media Center; can't convert them to another format; and can't play them on another computer. It also means that my listeners can't listen to the song. Oh well, at least I'll know for next time.

Conclusion:

It's not a bad service. The interface is clean and easy to use. Walmart seems to have a large catalog. My only regret is giving Walmart another $1.76 for nothing.

The interface is easy to use.

This comes up from the dialog box.