Big Day for MP3's

Personally, I hate WalMart, and will encourage everyone to go and buy these products from WalMart's competitors who are also in the business of selling MP3's - Amazon.com, BestBuy and - especially- RealNetworks Inc .

But, in the news,

MTV announced today that it will be rolling its online MP3 business into new venture with RealNetworks. Expected to roll-out on September 9 with the MTV Video Music Awards, RealNetworks, owner of Rhapsody music subscription service, will assume MTV's Urge music to form Rhapsody America.

Also,

Associated Press reports the multi-national WalMart broke into a new market selling songs free of copy-protections technology at their online music store this week. The highly controversial music, ranging from rock to rap to KidsBop, began selling Tuesday for 94 cents per song.

They will play on most portable media devices, including iPod's.

"Although many independent music labels have for years sold their tunes without copy restrictions, major recording companies have insisted on digital-rights management, or DRM, technology in hopes of curbing online piracy... Copy-protected songs sold through iTunes, for instance, generally won't play on devices other than the iPod, and iPods can't play DRM-enabled songs bought at rival music stores."