沃尔玛再次关闭音乐商店!但视频保存了下来

Attention 沃尔玛 digital music shoppers: please make your final selections and bring them to the checkout before Sunday. At that time, the store will be closing -- for good.

The once-dominant player in physical CD sales is shuttering its MP3-based online music store, after eight years of competing unsuccessfully with Apple's iTunes Store. 即使提供收费的歌曲.64 to $.88美元对1美元.99 to $1.29 on iTunes, 沃尔玛 saw its market share dwindle.

我们报道了这个故事的一个章节早在2008年 when 沃尔玛 shifted strategies away from Windows Media Audio (WMA) files that were protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) to DRM-free MP3 files. 2008年10月, the company sent out a notice to current customers that it planned to turn off its DRM servers, rendering purchased music unplayable on any Windows machine whose operating system was subsequently updated. The company provided instructions on how to circumvent the DRM, but a strong outcry from consumers forced 沃尔玛 to reconsider its decision to shutter its DRM servers.

Now that its music store's lights are going dark, what does this mean for 沃尔玛's video streaming service?

The same day that 沃尔玛 announced it was shuttering its music store, it took the wraps off an iPad-centric overhaul of Vudu.com.

沃尔玛于2010年收购了Vudu, intending to integrate Vudu technology into its private-label network-attached DVDs and smart TVs. That integration is still mostly uncharted territory, as the company had limited success selling consumers on Vudu. Blame the Netflix juggernaut: Netflix was already dominant on gaming consoles and set-top boxes.

Skirting the iTunes Store -- as 沃尔玛 plans to do with Vudu.com -- and going directly to consumers gives the company another 30 points to play with from a pricing standpoint, and may allow 沃尔玛 to institute variable pricing in much the same way it attempted with the music store. Vudu's content library is impressive: it has a rental library of over 20,000部好莱坞优质电影, 独立电影, and TV episodes (Disney content is noticeably absent). 这可能会给Vudu.com a chance to find an audience with iPad-wielding customers.

重新启动Vudu.com as an iPad-centric video hub means 沃尔玛 is trying to take on Apple at its own game, leveraging in-store displays and online ads to push consumers to Vudu.com.

成功绝不是必然的, and 沃尔玛 needs to address three major shortcomings as it streams to multiple screens:

1. iPad没有高清播放功能

While Vudu bills itself as a leader in HD delivery, that's only true for one of the three screens where Vudu content can be played: both the iPad/iPhone and computer are stuck at standard-definition (SD) playback. Only Vudu-equipped set-top boxes and smart TVs will play HD video.

2. 没有迪士尼内容

沃尔玛 has DVD and Blu-Ray distribution deals with all the major studios, but the Mouse House deal doesn't yet extend to Vudu's iPad playback. The likelihood of picking it up is slim, as Vudu.com takes money out of Apple's pocket (Steve Jobs is a major shareholder in Disney as well as Apple's CEO).

3. 没有购买和下载选项

像Netflix, Vudu is an online-only model when it comes to viewing content, 作为从 Vudu.com remains on the Vudu servers and can only be played online. 客户购买将不复存在，如果 Vudu.com 被关闭. 沃尔玛 may be wise to stick with this model, but its past experience with downloadable music, 即使它不是市场领导者, should push the company towards a purchase plan that offers offline playback on multiple devices.

这样做, 当然, the company would need to build its own video playback tool, and that would need to be cross-platform for at least Android, iOS, Mac OS和Windows. 这里有一个问题, however: 沃尔玛 didn't even allow Mac users to download audio files until mid-2008, and its music player only functioned on a limited number of Windows operating systems.

那么Vudu的租客们该怎么办呢? At the moment, they're still part of the 沃尔玛 experience. But they're probably nervously glancing over their shoulders, watching the lights go out in the music store and wondering if they're next.