False alarm: Wal-Mart will keep its music DRM servers online after all

Wal-Mart will not pull the plug on the DRM servers for its online music store. You can put down your pitchforks now.

The Arkansas-based retailer had announced last month that it would no longer support the DRM servers for its music store. Had it shut down the servers, all the DRM’d music bought from there would have been unplayable.

But, you know, DRM is great, long live DRM.

Wal-Mart’s full explanation is inside.

And I quote

NOTE: This is a follow-up to our email titled “Important Information
About Your Digital Music Purchases” from 9/26/08.

Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our
digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time. What this
means to you is that our existing service continues and there is no
action required on your part. Our customer service team will continue
to assist with DRM issues for protected windows media audio (WMA) files
purchased from Walmart.com.

While our customer support team is available to assist you with any
issues, we continue to recommend that you back up your songs by burning
them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you insure
access to them from any personal computer at any time in the future.

We appreciate your support and patience as we work to provide the best
service possible to you. As we move forward with our 100% MP3 store,
we’ll continue to update you with key decisions regarding our service
and your account via email.

Thank you for using Walmart MP3 Music Downloads.

The Walmart Digital Music Team

Now here’s a question: how many of you ever bought music from Wal-Mart? My guess is that you guys, the tech-savvy, weren’t exactly its biggest customer.