Target Johnny-Come-Lately In Digital MP3 Game

Trailing behind it main rival WalMart and such online stores as Amazon, Target announced that it is finally going to offer digital music downloads. Even bargain basement retailer KMart had music downloads before Target jumped on board, though they lost their dedicated music site in their bankruptcy a few years ago.

Target's digital music rollout begins with the first album, a Sony BMG release called Live From Philadelphia by John Legend. Target has not stated whether it will offer a full music catalogue, or whether it will stay focused on the Sony BMg catalogue and / or music promotions. The new downloads were announced today in tandem with Sony's announcement of their DRM free music cards.

The store is going to be powered by HipDigital. I certainly hope that HipDigital and Target run a smarter operation than WalMart has chosen. By tying its song downloads to Windows operating systems only and Windows Media Player only, WalMart's service is losing customers from incompatibility. Target needs to find an edge over WalMart by making the choice to offer songs that work on a variety of players and systems in a straight MP3 format, not a proprietary one.

Target reps also alluded to a possible digital video venture down the road, but declined to comment on a time frame for that. The launch of today's music download service remained low key as well, and limited to the one album for now. I think Target is testing the waters to avoid making the same mistakes other online retailers have in over reaching during a new venture online.

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