Wal-Mart opens online song shop but doesn't want money

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest shopping chain, has announced it will finally be taking its song shop online.

The supermarket behemoth has been testing its download service for several months and eventually launched the internet service on Tuesday. While another addition to the already crowded music download market – which has seen big names like Virgin, Coke and Microsoft take the plunge - won't be setting the music industry alight, Wal-Mart's song shop strategy may raise a few eyebrows as it doesn't want to make any money from it.

It's selling its songs a lower cost than most rivals – 88 cents, compared to iTunes and others' 99 cent offerings – with a catalogue of tunes that currently stands at around a third of a million but making profits from pop isn't its goal.

The idea is to drive more traffic towards its internet business as a whole and make up the profits there. It's not the first song seller to adopt the strategy – Apple's iTunes has been hugely successful, shifting 50 million songs since launch but the real news for Apple's moneymen is that sales of the company's more profitable iPod digital music players have gone skywards along with the downloads.

And Wal-Mart's 'no profit' model isn't the only way that it might help to shape the music download market. The online store will operate like its physical cousins and only sell music approved by the company and designed to be family friendly and not controversial in any way.

Among those who merited the ire of the shopping behemoth was popster Sheryl Crow – not normally known for courting controversy. Some years ago, Wal-Mart banned sales of Crow's album because it contained lyrics criticising Wal-Mart's policy of selling guns. It also put the mockers on Oasis' latest offering because it contained a swear word in one of its song titles.